Evelyn Christley Whorley Faulkner Reeves

Monday, May 11, 2009 was a sad day for my family. My grandmother passed away at the age of 78. Evelyn Christley was born in November 1930 to Lonnie H. Christley and Onie Gilley Christley. She was the first of four born to them. She grew up in a poverty stricken family and really never escaped that kind of life. Evelyn married three times during her life. She had three children with her first husband, Nadra, Doug, and Claud. They divorced and she got remarried some time later to my grandfather, Kenneth Faulkner. Together they had Sandra, Donna (my mommy), and Taffy. Kenneth died in 1969 in a swimming accident. Evelyn later married again and got divorced again. Some of my best memories from my early childhood are of my grandma. My mom was a single mom when I was born so we lived with my grandma. She would watch me while my mom was at work and later she also watched Angie. My grandma was a very very spunky person. My grandma's favorite things were her smokes, her beer, and her boyfriends. Grandma liked to drink occasionally which got her into a whole lot of trouble. She was known for her bar fights. My grandma loved spending time with her grand kids but she refused to be called grandma for the longest time....we had to call her mom. So my mom was "mommy" and my grandma was "mom". She insisted that she was too young to be called grandma or anything like that. I remember going grocery shopping, camping, doing laundry, cleaning, watching tv, playing games, and laughing with my grandma. She always wanted to know what was going on in my life and I could literally tell her everything because I knew that she wouldn't judge me. Her approach to life was, "shit happens so deal with it!" I take the same approach. In 1997 my grandma began having stokes but no one knew about it until she had one at a bad time and a bad place. She was walking home from the grocery store, pushing a cart, approaching rail road tracks...apparently having a seize of some sort. All the cars that were stopped for the train were beeping at her and yelling at her to stop for the train but she didn't so the train came by, knocked her off balance, and next thing ya know she's in the Blue Ash Nursing Home. She kept asking if she could go home but she could not live by herself anymore so she had to stay there. She began to slowly deteriorate over time. I saw her for the last time when I was there for my dad's funeral at the beginning of April. I love her and I will miss her tons. She was like a second mom to me.