This is the story of my mother, Annie May Taylor Guest. She was born in Granger, Utah on December 28, 1877, the daughter of Susan Peck Taylor and James Taylor. She was their fifth child. Her early life was spent on a farm, where she herded cows and rode horses. There was a time after seeing a circus that she decided to be a bareback rider in the circus, but she gave that up along the way.

She had little formal education. One year, she rode a horse to 21 st South (about 2 1/2 miles) to a little one room school. Some mornings the children were so cold they could barely walk into the room. The school was just for the winter months, for when spring came the boys were needed on the farms. The following year, she did not have so far to go, but it was very crowded and limited in what they taught.

Annie's summers were spent herding the cows and helping her sister Susie with her family.

I remember her telling about their first well and how thrilled they were with the water. She and her sisters planted slips of trees all over the place. Before that, their water came from the Jordan River.

When she was a little older, she decided to get a job in the city. One of her first jobs was sewing, a profession she followed all of her life. At that time sewing was done by foot power and one worked six days per week with no vacation. But that was not enough, in addition she worked for her board and room, getting up in the mornings to help with breakfast and helping with the work at night.

Then she bought a bicycle, so she could go home on Sunday, a ride of over seven miles back and forth. This must have been good for her because she always seemed to have a nervous energy. She called it "ambition", and was always driving herself to do more.

She claims that she got her "ambition" from her mother. From her father, she must have gotten the ability to walk. When he was a boy, he walked across the plains from Patterson, New Jersey to Salt Lake City. She was one of, or I should say the best walker I ever knew. In fact, she didn't bother to walk, she ran!

She met my father at a dance at Calder's Park (where Nibley Golf Course is now located). They were married on October 8, 1902.

Their first home was at Hustler Flour Mills (2900 South State Street, Salt Lake City) where her husband was a foreman. She also took in boarders and they started to save for their home. My sister (Leona) and I were born there. But the work and dust were hard on my father and before my brother (Melvin) was born, they were almost ready to move into their new home at 3490 South State.

The next few years my mother was really busy, having three babies in the same number of years and losing them all. So when my brother Charles was born, they were thrilled with two boys and two girls.

Their happiness was short-lived because my father's health was bad. He had been sick and had pulled through once. But the next illness was more than he could take and he died on November 5, 1915, leaving my mother with four children.

I can remember getting out of school for Christmas vacation and my mother saying that she had a feeling something horrible was going to happen. It did. My brother (Melvin), who was seven years old, was run over by a wagon loaded with slag. He died three hours later. So within six weeks, her husband and son were gone.

The next months were hard ones for my mother. She had a hard time adjusting. Most women at that time did not go out to work, but she did. it was good for her. With the help of good neighbors such as Mr. and Mrs. Staten, who took care of Charles, she was able to make a living for her family. She always worked hard, but I think that she enjoyed work more in later years when she didn't have to work than in the years when it was necessary for her to work.

On April 4, 1938, her oldest daughter (Leona) died. So that out of her seven children she had lost all but two.

She had two obsessions, working and fixing her place up nice. She would move into a place and then work from morning until night planting roses, shrubs, and trees. Then after it was real pretty, wanting to move again, never being real happy and contented in one place very long.

She has worked long and hard. In fact, she worked until she was late in her Seventies, going back to help out when she was past eighty.

She worked in the temple during the Depression, doing three sessions a day, going early in the morning and not getting out until late at night. But this was what she enjoyed.

She will soon be eighty-five years old. I think that the hardest thing for her to accept is that she cannot do the things she used to do. But, as she told me the other day, there are a lot of good years left in her yet and I am sure of it too.

-written by Erma G. Hancock