My daughter, Tami Michelle Marlar White!

When my youngest daughter, Tami Michelle, was born in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, it was a trying time for the United States. We were living in East Memphis near Jackson and National and Jim and I both worked downtown. I had just found out that I was pregnant when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot only blocks from where I worked. I was working for First National Bank on the eighth floor and we had guards riding on the elevators and National Guard soldiers standing guard around the outside of the building. There was a 7PM to 7AM curfew for everyone and all stores and businesses were closed. Things had eased a lot by the time that she was born, but she came in with a bang. She was born on Friday morning and on Saturday we had an earthquake that shook Baptist Hospital and did some minor damage to a building across the street. Then on Monday when we were ready to go home we woke up to an early snow storm and below freezing temps. We never picked out a boy's name and I cried for two days because I thought Jim was disappointed (he wasn't!) so I guess this was her way of making herself known! He also picked her name. Again because he had seen a girl he thought was pretty named Michelle. This girl was a receptionist for a printing company in Memphis. I guess it was a good thing we didn't have any more kids or he might have found a pretty girl he wanted to keep instead of just her name! :-)
She was a very good baby. Slept all night the second night we took her home, but when I took her to the doctor for a two week checkup she had lost weight, What did the doctor do? He made me start waking her up for a bottle every three hours day and night. Goodbye peaceful quiet nights!!!!!
When I look back now I can see that she had ADHD. Then we just said she was our "boy" and hyperactive because she was always talking and getting in to something. She went to Horn Lake Baptist Church kindergarten and the teacher used to laugh and say she spent most of her time in the corner for talking.
When she was eight years old, she had her tonsils removed and when I carried her back for her checkup. I noticed that she was smiling funny and got on to her. She tried to tell me she wasn't doing anything but I was in too much of a hurry to listen. When the doctor walked in, he said "Oh,no, this child has Bell's Palsy". She was the youngest child he had ever seen that had it. The nerves in the left side of her face were paralyzed and she couldn't close her eye and smiled crooked. We didn't know what to expect but thankfully it went away in about 3 weeks and although there is a chance it can, it has not returned.
Michelle has always had a love for the group "Loverboy", especially their lead singer, Mike Reno. She has seen him numerous times and met him several times. It is a joke around our house especially now that he is an "aging rock star".
Jan was the only child for five and a half years and then when Jan left home Michelle was the only child at home for almost five years. During her high school years she worked at TCBY in Southaven and later at a clothing chain in Southland Mall.
She graduated from Southaven High in 1986 and shortly after we moved to Pensacola, Florida. We lived there from June until the end of November and she and I went to the beach everyday. She could always swim like a fish and those were some of the best times of my life. We would go downtown Pensacola and walk around, go to the mall and just spend time together.
She also came to Iuka and lived with my mother. It was here that she met James and they were married in a simple outdoor early spring wedding on the deck behind the lodge at Tishomingo State Park. They have two beautiful children, Adam and Meghan.
Michelle works in the lab at Magnolia Hospital in Corinth. She has worked in nursing homes, doctor's offices, and also at Helen Keller Hospital. She is so good with patients especially older people. She wanted to be a nurse but had to quit school because her daughter had health problems as a child. She would be a wonderful nurse. She is so compassionate and caring.
Sometimes as Jim and I get older and have health problems, I feel like she is the parent and I am the child. She will take over and deal with the doctors, nurses, and insurance companies so we don't have too. She is one of the most family oriented people I have ever seen. No one better do anything to her family or friends! She is always the first person we call when we are sick or lonesome. She can cheer you up quicker than anyone I know.
I am so proud of Michelle. She is a hardworking, loving, caring mother, wife and daughter. If I could I would write it across the sky in diamonds-
I LOVE YOU MICHELLE WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!