Ora Viola Benson--My Cousin Babe |
Every so often I meet someone with whom I immediately bond,
heart to heart. One such person in my life is my cousin, Babe (Ora Viola Nay Benson). She’s not a
close cousin. In fact I didn’t even know of her existence until she was 84
years old, living in a nursing home and unable to speak because of cancer
surgery on her throat. I was only able to visit her one time, since she lived
over 850 miles away from my home, but she was definitely my family. We are both
Nays, and the Nays love family.
The way we met is a story. This month marks the 3rd
year anniversary of her death and I’ve been thinking about her. My sister, my
cousin Joan, and I had just finished a book about the Nay family. It was a
herculean task, but we had help from our other cousins on the “book committee”
and from God. Now our names were “out there.” The internet wasn’t nearly as big
back then, Google+ wasn’t yet thought of, nor was FaceBook. But back in those
days we did have ebay. As I mentioned, Babe was in a nursing home and her only
son, Larry Lee, was not well. He was increasingly worried about paying for Babe’s
care, especially should something happen to him. Larry was a veteran and he had
a computer. He knew a little bit about ebay and reluctantly, he decided to put
the family’s Bible up for sale there.
Family Bible given to Ormus B Nay by his mother Thirza |
This Bible was not the kind of Bible with scores of names,
dates and places in it. It wasn’t even very valuable. But Larry hoped to make a
little extra money for Babe. Another Nay cousin, Allen Nay, busy writing a book from his vantage point as a motorcycle preacher, saw the ebay
listing. He contacted my sister and the rest is history. Family history.
You see the only names in the Bible are the names of Thirza
Angelina Marly and her son, Ormus B. Nay. Ormus B is Babe’s grandpa and my
great-great grandpa. What a treasure! On so many levels. The date revealed even
more—March 26, 1887. Ormus B was serving time in the Nevada State Penitentiary at
that time. And Thirza was reportedly dead! Now we knew that, just as we thought,
she was not dead in 1887, and the Bible proved it.