in approx. 1909 when she was age 7, Evie Maxwell contracted polio and was paralyzed from the waist down.

Evie was born April 7, 1902.

in 1910, Tom & Gilly Maxwell buried their 1 and 2 year old sons in the same week on Oct. 3 and 8, died from Typhoid Fever.

to sum it up, the day that their neighborn Amanda Shirley was found, Tom & Gilly had 2 living children Evie, age 9 in a wheelchair, and Jim, age 6. And Gilly was pregnant with son John, who was born 3 months later on December 11. death was no stranger to that dirt road.