Arlynn and John
Two Hoosier Lives
by
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This is a story of a little girl growing up alone, very lonely, vulnerable and naïve. It’s a story about her life with her loved grandmother and grandfather, her own mother, her Uncle Joe Palmer, Aunt Rose, and her father, a man who gave her so much in life and who she has never forgotten or stopped loving. It’s about the people she grew up with at Precious Blood Grade School, about her neighbors, her own family after she married; her trials, mistakes, her influence on her sons’ lives and people’s influence on hers; about her upbringing, who to trust, to care about, and how not to be selfish; about how to put aside her goals in time of the needs of others, and to help folks in need. This little girl was going to set the world on fire without a match. She was going to make something of herself. Little did she know how naïve she was, only one of her mistakes. She learned that she had to make many decisions that would affect the lives of others, sometimes against her real desires, for her father, her mother and her family. This is a story about her regrets, her triumphs and seeing her sons achieve an education that she never did. This is about her tears of rejection from folks she trusted when she needed their help. Mostly this is a story about love, hate, trust and distrust. This is the story about the person she was and the person she is today.
So this is my story and the story of those who loved me and those who I have loved and still love. It’s not very complicated, and I hope any reader will find something worthwhile in it.
At this time of the year, autumn, when I walk in dry leaves and crisp air with the fall colors all around me, I remember the stories my Grandfather Joe Palmer told every year to all of the kids I grew up with. I smile to myself as I recall how fascinated we all were as we listened to the way the old man spun out these yarns. Even now, as I tell them to my grandchildren and watch their faces and wide eyes, as they listen to me, I know I’m bringing some of the past back to the present. This they otherwise would never know; some things never change, even with time. These yarns may or may not be true; each year Grandfather may have added to them, and maybe I have too. Even so, either way, as I enjoyed them, and my children enjoyed them, so now are their children doing so. I am not a writer, but I will do my best in retelling these tales so that they won’t be lost in the past, as so many things have a way of doing. I hope the reader will enjoy them as much as the people do when I tell them. And I hope a little of what my Grandfather was to me and my young friends will come through yet one more retelling.
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About the Book
In her eighty-four years, Arlynn Swope endured many of life’s greatest challenges. She knew illness, poverty, a near-death pregnancy, mental illness in her immediate family, and the suicide of her husband. She lived through the Great Depression and dropped out of school in the ninth grade to help her family survive the 1930s. But through it all, she faced each of the many rocks in her road with love and grit. Hers is an uncommon tale from a most common Hoosier woman, “the little woman” who was never little but was always there for those she loved.
A veteran of the US Navy with an eleventh-grade education, John Curtis Knight didn’t know what he was in for when he fell crazy in love with Arlynn. A welder and factory worker by trade, he built a reputation as a top amateur golfer who became a real “player” on his native Indiana courses. His life was built around Arlynn and their family, and they shared a rich adventure together—until despair and paranoia led to his suicide when he was seventy-eight.
Theirs is a true love story, one in which these two common Hoosiers share a life of uncommon love. Together they walked, pushed, pulled, and loved their way through it all.
About the Author
A Hoosier wife, mother and storyteller with a ninth-grade education, Arlynn Swope Knight dedicated twenty years to preserving her family’s story.
A father, two-time US Navy veteran and top-flight amateur golfer, John Curtis Knight used the last four months of his life capturing his life’s story.
Their son, compiler and editor, John Howard, has a PhD in medieval literature and linguistics. He was a university English professor, vice president and USAID project manager in Central Asia and Afghanistan.