It's hard to believe there was once happier times. I ,Elizabeth, had the feeling of dread as if everything in my life had finally fallen apart. My story begins when my family and I were entering the Atlanta Georgia train station, to travel to Chicago after hearing there was work for my father there, 3 years back on February 24th, 1939. After losing everything we had worked for, and only carrying the clothes on our backs and a few of our possessions, we bought the train tickets and headed to the main gateway. When we finally got to the main gateway a man with mysterious face and many belongings bumped into me; everything we were carrying crashed to the floor, including all of our paperwork. When I finished picking up my things I headed in the direction given on the ticket. When I boarded the train I went searching for my family but they were nowhere to be found. All of a sudden the train jerked me forward with it. I ran, panicked, up to the ticket collector dodging luggage in the isle.

I whispered out of breath," Sir I think I have boarded the wrong train."

The ticket collector said in a sympathetic voice," I am sorry miss, but we have already left the station."

I went back to my seat full of anguish, and leaned my head on the cool glass of the window and fell into a deep sleep. An abrupt stop caused me to awaken. Realizing that people were getting up and grabbing their things to leave, I too then began to gather my things and head off the train. When I stepped onto the flat surface the frosty New York air hit the side of my face and sent chills down my spine. When tears started swelling up in my eyes as I ran to the nearest bathroom, and sat down on the dirty floor to cry. After I had cried for 45 minutes I fell asleep right there in the bathroom. After a few nights crying myself to sleep in the same bathroom, I realized I needed to find food and a more permanent shelter. So I began to wander the train station. That's when a flyer crossed my path, that said "HOOVERVILE: WHERE THE VAGRANTS FIND A HOME IN CENTRAL PARK".

I went and set out that evening in search of Central Park, but dark began to fall fast and as I was caught in an alley way. A dark silhouette began to approach me at an uneasy pace but stopped, blocking the end of the alley. Of course being from a small Georgia town I didn't think anything of it until he grabbed my left wrist and threw me against the hard, cold brick wall, knocking me to the ground, and thrusting himself upon me. As I opened my eyes, my vision was fuzzy and dull but I could tell the man saying "you blacked out" was very handsome. The next thing he said was "my name is William". I later found out that William was college student trying to become a doctor but his dreams were shattered by the fall of the stock market. William, was my newly founded love.


Nine months later, November 6th, William J.R. Eisenhower Stone was born! Even though my Little Will wasn't what I asked for I deeply loved him with all my heart and would give anything to keep him safe. Little Will clung to my side every minute of the day, he played with the falling snow in my arms, and he would play peek-a-boo under the only few blankets we had. When my love, Little Will, was only 2 years old he began to develop the strangest rash, that looked like a sun burn, and he had a fever. I concluded that the "rash" was only a sunburn from the day before when we were playing out front of our tent playing with pinecones. Soon Little Will started to vomit uncontrollably. That's when William decided that little Will's "rash" and fever were symptoms of Scarlet Fever. William made a concoction to help cure his illness. After many weeks Little Will's symptoms began to disappear and he turned back into his bright, happy self!

Thanks to Williams concoction they cured many people in the Hooverville's of Scarlet Fever. He became a famous doctor and we made enough money to go back to GA in search of my family, and to send my lover back to medical school to finish his degree! Later that year we met up with my family and got married in our small town church, and Little Will began preschool.