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Who is my baby that was born when I was 10 ½ years old in the middle of the night, delivered by her father because she couldn’t wait to get to the hospital to make her entrance into this big old world on February 21, 1973. As I stood in the doorway of my bedroom which you had to go through our parents bedroom to get to, I watched a miracle occur. As my father spoke with the doctor and was guided through the birthing process, my beautiful baby sister emerged. At that moment I knew she would be my baby girl. Even at birth she was stubborn. Without the proper medical facilities to see if she is breathing she had to be spanked to cry. What a joyous sound.
But, oh what a mistake. Myra is and has always been an outspoken person. From her days as a toddler when she used to try to get the fish out of a fish tank that was taller than her to this present day. She fought and rolled with the best of them (her cousins) growing up. She was always opinionated and her opinion was always right. At a very early age she let her opinion be know. I remember she said to Aunt Helen “Daddy was right, you do talk too much. You should be quiet.” Myra was 4 years old. Everyone in the house got quiet. In particular, my father because he never expected her to repeat something she over heard. This is why we should be very careful what we say in front of and around our children. Sometimes she is quick on the draw and it could cut to the quick. She can be sharp because she is opinionated and out spoken.
In every school she went to from Pre-K to high school senior Myra graduated with honors and was either valedictorian or salutatorian. Myra and Tanja were two of the youngest girl scouts. They were Pixies before the age level was created by the Girl Scout council. Myra was always creative and bright when it came to projects, her homework and arts and crafts. Her decorating ideas and style of dress was influential. Myra, for her high school prom wore a red dress and white stockings and I remember she glued bows on the stockings to match the dress because they didn’t sell stockings like that for adults.
Mom always said Myra should be a lawyer because she was council to all her peers growing up. She would watch TV, do her homework and be on the phone counseling one of her friends through a situation all times of day and night. She is quite nosy. Don’t let her get wind of something you know that she wants to know. She will pester you until you either tell her or kill yourself. She knew everybody’s business, she did her share of matchmaking and has had her share of heart break. Meanwhile, she is and has always been a true friend to all. She was always responsible and fairly level headed.
Myra’s first year in college was tough. She went away to Syracuse and left her youth fellowship crew. Many a days were spent chauffeuring her back and forth to youth fellowship and her many other activities, wishing she would get her license and giving up on that idea because for years Myra and Marpessa would confuse the break and the gas when they got in the car to even pretend to drive. Look at her today, one of the best and safest drivers I know. I would ride with her anywhere. Her withdrawal symptoms were terrible. She came home every weekend for one reason or another or we went to Syracuse for one reason or another so for the first year it was as if she never left home. My mother would put food on the Grey Hound bus and ship it to her. She had all her friends, as is today, hooked on my mother’s cooking. At youth fellowship as all the parents were supposed to donate food, you knew the night my mother cooked. You didn’t get peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hot dogs, You got a full Sunday dinner. Which isn’t hard because my mother is an excellent cook. Myra would have it no other way. She had a reputation to uphold. Myra’s college graduation party was a back yard barbecue on campus where she lived at SU. Myra and Aunt Jackie are the only two people I know that had a chartered bus full of people attend their college graduation.
Myra was always such a spoiled brat and princess, that she is the only person to graduate from a school directly across the street from her house and got chauffeured across the street to graduation. When Myra graduated from high school we didn't hire a limousine, her oldest brother
Ronnie dressed like a chauffeur and borrowed a friend's car and chauffeured her and her crew to their prom at a hotel in Manhattan.
One year we had an impromptu surprise party for her for her birthday because she came home to see her three-week old niece, Nadja Angelique Linen. Someone who is a mini Myra. God help us. She looks more like Auntie that she does me, her mother. She acts like Myra and is as outspoken as she is and she is only 8. Myra knitted a blanket for her niece. It was her first and so far last project. She had the concept right, but didn’t know how to end the project so Nadja’s baby blanket is large enough to cover a full size bed. To this day she still sleeps under that blanket from her Auntie.
At Syracuse Myra pledged Zeta Phi Beta. Not a family tradition, because the few people in our family to pledge are mostly Deltas, but Myra, again, nosy and analytical did her homework. She pledged Zeta not to go with the crowd, but based on her research and findings. And she is a Zeta to her heart.
As children we tend to stray from the fold. Myra didn’t stray much and God has always been a part of her life. At SU she joined BCCE. When they toured, we toured. Going to hear them sing we have been lost in both Long Island and New Jersey. At SU she and three other minority students co-founded an organization which is still a viable organization on the Syracuse campus, BLISTS.
Responsible for attempting to make her own way, she did an internship at PaineWebber in New Jersey. She impressed her employer so much that before she arrived back home from graduation a job offer was on the answering machine. Not only a job offer, but an offer with seniority as if she never left the summer before to go back to school.
As one of my maids-of-honor, she did her job splendidly. I didn’t worry about anything. Just as with my baby shower, her decorating and creative flair came to fruition. My bridal shower and baby shower were great.
From toddler to teen to young adult and now, getting married, Myra is now and will always be my beautiful baby. She has grown into someone that not only our biological family, but our church family and everyone that knows her is very proud of.
Her standards are high, which is excellent, and they never falter. She has faltered in different areas of her life, but she always ended up back where God would have her. She is at a point where God is using her and will continue to use her. She is sold out and committed to him. She waited, though it was rough on us many a times, the various romances, but God is in control and now has given her his gift on this earth placed here just for her in the person of Kevin Miller. Though it has only been about three years I feel as if he has always been a part of our family.
At the age of 28, I am just as proud now as the day I gave birth to her on that cold February night. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her at any time.
By Marpessa Wiley
We remember Paul Linen
Myra Y. Linen
Groom
Kevin D. Miller
Mother of the Bride
Sarah A.Linen
Brother of the Bride
Ronnie Linen
Mother of the Groom
Viera Miller
Father of the Groom
Lawrence E. Miller
Ladies-of-Honor
Mayneiata Huntt
Marpessa D. Wiley
Sandra Linen-Ward
April Wheeler
Jacqueline Epps
Auntie's Little Princess
Nadja Linen-Ward
Best Men
Gregory J. DeCastro
Curtis Hobdy
Sanford E. Brown
Junior Best Man
Javon Bell
Praise Dancer
Ijnanya Weaver
Musician/Soloist
Kirsten Holden