The next person to laugh
gets sent straight to bed.” Lavauna Ellsworth very firmly warned her two young children.
It’d been a very busy day and being the mother of five young children often
left her feeling exhausted and irritated. She put a tired hand against her
forehead and sighed. Eight year-old Lesli stared wide-eyed at her mother as her
older sister Launa quickly got back to work from her position perched atop the
kitchen counter. Sweat beaded on Launa’s face and dripped down her back, the
sweat causing her t-shirt to cling to her. It was an unreasonably warm summer
night in Davis, California in 1975. The two girls were helping their mother can
peaches, but had come down with a case of the giggles due to the lateness of
the hour as well as the strong bond between the sisters. Lesli looked at Launa
and made a face. Launa did her best to keep her composure and only just
succeeded in stifling her laughter. “It’s late and these peaches won’t can
themselves” Lavauna gently chided, repeating the systematic pattern of canning:
washing, boiling, freezing, caramelizing, and then finally canning the peaches.
The fortress of finished peaches lined the countertops while the daunting line
of clear mason jars still hinted at more work to do.
Launa swept a glance
around the kitchen. Her gaze finally settled on her sister. She locked eyes with Lesli and started panicking when she felt another round of giggles coming on. She
looked around frantically for something to muffle the impending burst of sound
and snatched the first thing she could find. Her hands swiftly wrapped around
half of a peach and she shoved the entire thing in her mouth. Her lips and eyes
bulged from the strain of keeping the bubbling laughter in. She turned towards
her sister. Upon seeing this spectacle, Lesli could no longer contain her
laughter. She let out a great guffaw and laughed until tears streamed down her
face, the echo filling all the space within the small kitchen. Lavauna let out
a sigh almost as loud as the laugh had been. “Go to your room.” She commanded
and made a flourishing motion with her hand indicating her wish that Lesli
leave the room. Lesli quietly and obediently stood up from her spot in her
chair and trudged slowly up the wooden stairs, the floorboards making a
creaking sound under her weight. Launa stared regretfully after her younger sister. This family anecdote seems
like a fairly basic, inconsequential one, but it has more layers than you’d
expect. Lavauna’s parenting style lists a consequence for an
action taken and if and when that action is completed, the consequence
immediately follows. Lavauna’s mother’s parenting, on the other
hand, followed an authoritarian style consisting of frequent bouts of
mostly verbal but often physical abuse. The consequence for thetwo
young girls’ uncontrollable giggling was merely getting
sent to bed. Had it been Lavauna uncontrollably laughing, her mother
would have forced her to stand in a corner as she yelled at her for over
an hour.
Lavauna could have followed this trend and
started a whole cycle of abuse for her children to pass on, but
instead, she decided from a very early age to be a kind and
nurturing person just like her dear Grandma Pinkerton. She
would look after her siblings, control her temper, and eventually
come to feel the peace that comes through the everlasting gospel of
Jesus Christ. There were some negative things
that came from this abuse, but due to her unfailing charity and
love, Lavauna overcame many challenges and grew up to be a
loving mother to her five children as well as a great example to her 17
grandchildren. Because of her, her posterity had a healthy, happy childhood and
could go on to raise grandchildren in the same manner of their parents.
She had the power to change the course of her family history by deciding to
rear her children in a loving environment with understood rules. For this
reason she is one of the best role models I have and I'm forever grateful she
was able to give her family the love and
care it needs to flourish.
(Lesli is pictured on the far right with Launa next to her)
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