"We're sisters and we share things, but not our favorite drivers." Kathy Beth Russell - Jimmie Jimmie Jimmie
Yeah, share things like ALL of our DNA, childhood memories and traumas, ancestry, love of books, stubbornness, our voices sound the same, none of us can sing, we look alike. But there is so much more to being sisters than all that, of a supernatural level that's not easily explained. Especially to people who don't have sisters. Like my kids, brother and sister, different fathers - they just don't get the unbreakable connection we sisters share.
Today, May 21st, is Kathy Beth's birthday. If she were still with us in the physical plane, she would be 68. So, we are having an intimate little party - just us seesters, with Kathy Beth's favorites: chocolate mini donuts, circus peanuts, Jimmie Johnson props, and plenty of candles. Carla (big seester)

​Grandma Layton and her sister Carolyn were as close as sisters can be, that's why I'm including excerpts from her biography to illustrate that strong bond that lasts a lifetime and beyond.
From page 30 of Signs Along the Way: 
My older sister used to tell me all kinds of tales. At night we would kneel by the big double bed, our pink challis nightgowns with the high, ruffled neck and the long-ruffled sleeves trailing around our knees. Then Carolyn would begin: “God Bless my Dear Darling Mamma, God Bless my Dearest Father, God Bless my Big Brother, God Bless my Dear, Sweet Little Sister. Please, Dear God, give her more brains. God Bless the good preacher, God Bless my nice teacher, God Bless the self-sacrificed missionaries. Please forgive all my many sins and help me not to follow in the pathway of the sinners anymore. Amen.” In the same breath and one motion, she jumped in and pulled the covers up to her chin. Then I would crawl up in bed and we would cozy up like kittens under the homemade comforter.
From page 77, a letter from Carolyn Maude to her aunt Dorothy Maude:
I think a great deal of Elizabeth these days. I believe she’s due to have the baby about the fifteenth of April, just a few days at this writing. She never told me – the little bugger! Anyway, I can imagine great anxiety and great happiness. I wonder if I’ll be as wonderful an aunt as you have been. Funny about Elizabeth and me. What she has, I haven’t. And what I have, she hasn’t, yet we both are fairly happy.
From page 239:
Dear Carolyn, when Riley died in September, I couldn’t cry. Because I wouldn’t let myself. I thought, ‘Just what Corky (Alvera) needs, a weepy mother-in-law.’ If I were to have cried, it would set off an avalanche of tears from the five little inconsolable girls. They did cry, but it was mostly one at a time. Anyway, that was my reasoning at the time. So in holding my tears back, soon it became impossible to cry. Towards the last of November that year, I had been sitting reading and Glenn was watching television, a ten o’clock show, but he was tired, so decided to go to bed. Cloris Leachman was on; she plays such a frivolous character in that show. Her husband (in the show) had been dead for many years, and she decided to have his body moved closer. So, she made all the plans, and they waited the hour of the funeral. Everything was ready – the flowers, the preacher, the mourners and the organist. The casket never arrived. Days went on, the preparations dwindled, nothing happened. Then, the casket arrived. It had been mistakenly sent to France, and then back. So, they finally had the funeral. Cloris stood by that closed casket and weeping angrily said, “Niles, you went to Paris without me!” That had to be the most absurd statement I ever heard, and the floodgates burst opened. I guess Glenn must have thought I had gone nuts or lost my mind. Poor Glenn. He tried to console me, as Missi would console you, Carolyn. Anyhow, I got rid of those tears.
From page 240, a letter from Elizabeth to her sister Carolyn Maude:
Yes, I would say your pictures tend to be ones that appeal especially to men. They are certainly not weak or effeminate, ever. The lines are fine and often dainty and delicate, but always resolute, like you knew exactly what you wanted to do. This gives the whole picture an intenseness that I would say men tend to admire. But then you and I, too, have probably as many male characteristics as feminine. I know I am a radical woman’s libber. Glenn cannot understand why I’m not always content to sit on a cushion, sew a fine seam, and be taken care of. Kay, Carla, and Judy Hope are even more so. I predict that in 100 years this will be a matriarchal society. We are all aggressive, now where did we get that? Not from Mother, did we? Well, perhaps. She always got what she wanted, but in a different way. Nowadays I suppose one would say your pictures have a lot of “macho”, probably why they appeal to men. I would also guess that men have better judgment on pictures. Or should I say, “Their likings appeal to me.” Probably it is the strength and independence you get onto the canvas. All your pictures have a certain intensity and independence.
From page 267, a letter from Carolyn Maude to Elizabeth:
I do hope that Mr. Ault used a picture like this in his lecture, to show what the two main characters in the numerous drawings really look like. You are the most modest person I know. Here this lecture took place in the middle of January, and you are just now telling me about it I agree with Mr. Ault in one respect. I don’t think the talent shown in your drawings “just happens.” There is more than drawing – there is thought, study, emotion, and understanding. Everything you have felt in your whole life seems to be coming out in your drawings. I enclose a clipping about something entirely different which expresses it: “Your whole life has been a preparation". I feel that a lecture like this is far more complimentary than just a hanging exhibition would be. I am so proud of you. You were fortunate that two men like Don Lambert and Mr. Ault have taken an intense interest in your work, so that you aren’t “hiding your lantern under a barrel” as your modesty would otherwise have done. “Art Therapy” is even better than just amusing yourself and others with “pretty pictures,” and I think very few people could have done it. You can rightly feel that you are a leader as well as an outstanding example in that program.

But first some background, since you only seem to focus on Joe's role in all of this. Judy and Kathy moved to St. Joe to co-manage the Thrifty Nickel. Judy and Kevin were separated, and Kathy was divorced but having a hard time leaving her life with Jack. She had been a top salesperson in Hobbs, New Mexico, and wanted to continue on that path. Judy was typesetting at Thrifty Nickel in Odessa, Texas, so it seemed like a great combination. However, Kathy was no saint, and she could not bear to live without a man. After sleeping with her boss and various other employees, the work environment was tense. Judy and Kathy made a plan to quit, but when that moment came Kathy bailed on her promises and left Judy to pick up the pieces. Not the first time, and certainly not the last. Kathy had to be in control, and if that didn't work out, she would throw her famous temper tantrums. Surely you have experienced some of those. I moved up to that Zone of Ignorance to escape Chris' stalking and had no guarantee of a job. Once a position opened up at the Thrifty Nickel I applied, and interviewed with Steve M., since he had the final word. I had impressive skills in the darkroom and was great at typesetting - Judy trained both me and Kathy on the typesetting process. Compared to the other papers we had worked at, TN was a joke, and we all made fun of it together. Mom moved out there to be close to Brad and Shannon - not to ruin their marriage - as Joe and Kathy had repeated often. They were split up when Kathy came out to my farm and said she had an idea for a business, and I agreed to get in on it. We started it, both of us, together. At the beginning Kathy promised she would sell, that she missed it. I never said I would, and she knew that. I did everything else but sell. I went to the post office and recreated lots of mailing lists, I established and delivered to stand routes, I helped negotiate with PC's Plus for the computer lease. When Kathy decided she didn't want to sell advertising, it was a letdown, but we agreed to hire a commissions-only salesperson to get that going. Then Joe wanted in, and Kathy caved, leaving me under the bus. Joe dared to tell me to sell the farm, why didn't he just get another job? All that man could do was sell (only in his small area), while I had a number of talents that would have been put to use if I hadn't wasted so much time waiting for Kathy to get a backbone. The two of them fought constantly, it was annoying to hear Joe go on and on about how great he was and depressing to see Kathy so unable to stand her ground and move on. We had plenty of good times, but this has caused both Judy and I to have to defend our relationship - that's a shame. However, it's only to Joe and my kids that we have to explain anything, EVERYONE else knows. Honestly, I think Joe understood far more than my kids do, he was witness to the way Carley and Brad treated all of us through the years and surely had a sense of Shannon's behavior as far as her disloyalty to me and my family. If you consider a christian to be a person that has no hate in their heart and only love for all souls, then Kathy was not a christian. She despised Carley and was so disappointed in Brad for the damage they caused to our family. And she hated the drinking, drugs, and tumulus lifestyle that always consumed Joe. I remember the girl who got on the stage at Kathy's funeral, she cried about the way they had treated Kathy, how she cleaned up and hovered over all the drunks. Too late for that, couldn't they see the destruction when it was going on? Such simple, selfish, stupid people.
Joe said that for the past two years Kathy had changed her mind about things, and that he thought my letter to her was devastating. I'm sure it was, but we watched Kathy unravel as early as the spring of 2018, and it was necessary for truth to shock her back to reality. Her posts on Facebook became radicalized, mean, judgmental - not her character at all. Kathy comes from a family of strong, independent women, and her former wide view of the world got smaller and smaller. Surrounded by a petty coven of small-minded women, she had gradually sunk to their level. That's what it looks like from the outside of that area looking in - white people spewing racism, misogynist (female versions), homophobic, holier-than-thou gossips - worshiping political figures as if they were christ incarnate. Which went against everything Kathy stood for, it fragmented her personality, trying to integrate all that hate with the values she had espoused as an ambassador promoting Grandma Layton's legacy. Do you think I was the only person who blocked her from Facebook? I didn't until she got vicious, spouting views on abortion and trashing me and others that I love in public, and defending Carley, white-washing and lying along the way. Don't forget, I was in California when Kathy was pregnant - and that's all I'm going to say about that topic. Those actions don't hold in the world outside of that coven, and the farther out there she got, the harder her spirit fought to find an anchor. Kathy prayed desperately for relief of her RA pain, homeless cats and dogs, trump, random sick people on social media, and for her wayward husband to quit cheating, drinking, and smoking pot. Can you picture that, a woman earnestly praying, pleading, begging, for years and years? It just breaks my heart that you wouldn't see any of that. Years of unanswered prayers and then BAM! Joe's back. And then her other god loses the white house, Jimmie Johnson quit racing, then Linda gets covid and dies. And the battle with Linda's kids. And Joe's heart attack, and his sudden preaching, bible-thumping - and finally, her crippled body, the one that Joe refused to take care of for DECADES, became the caretaker. It wears me out just typing about it. Kathy's painful battle with RA was completely ignored with all of Joe's drama. After voicing our own concerns and urging from friends (several of them psychologist friends we met through Grandma's following) we went to St. Joe under the guise of her birthday - an intervention if necessary. Lots of red flags ominously predicted what was to come: none of them wore masks when we went out to eat, (Kathy bought the hype and thought she was protected), talk about Joe's plans for a traveling ministry show (Jesus Christ!), RV's, the home she loved and all the things she would have to leave behind... it was a real shitshow. Kathy was subdued - broken.
The hateful texts to Judy came shortly after that visit. To say we were caught out of the blue is an extreme understatement. Kathy was lying about the lake house and Globe Publishing; we could only assume it was to dig up money for Joe's next big dream. She had lost her damn mind, rapidly texting hateful, hurtful things to Judy and Dane, and trying to pit me against them. What did you expect us to do, roll over and say, "Oh, okay, here's the money, and sorry for helping you out when you wanted us to"? Kathy went in on the Lakehouse deal as a way to get away from Joe, an escape house if needed. Even Joe knew that. I have all the emails from the inception of Globe Publishing also, the bills, the money put in and taken out, the money owed - and Kathy repeating over and over, "Don't tell Joe." I have always paid Kathy first and the most, in spite of her continually saying, "No, pay yourself, you give me too much of the money." Did either of you read all of those crazy texts, or only my response? You were obviously told only one side of that estrangement - there were five people involved, and three of us were attacked unmercifully. It was NONE of your business.

Like Judy Kay says, "I feel ya, Grandma".