Patricia Shepard:  

Prepare to here the truth for once. I think that's what this world needs more than anything. After high school I met a young man in the Coast Guard. His name is Andy Carter, Rule High School Class of 1981. I was introduced to him by my current boyfriend. The first time my eyes meet his I new I was in trouble (the good kind). This young man was everything I ever wanted in a partner. Handsome, hard working, intelligent, Bible believing, strong, curtious, innocent, and he SMELLED REALLY GOOD! We hit it off really well and I moved on from my then present boyfriend to Andy. For the next year and a half we wrote to each other, spent countless hours on the phone long distance and saw each other as much as possible with him being in the military. We married on December 14th, 1986 and struggled with it because I tried to stay here in Knoxville to finish school (Knoxville Business College). After six months of being a new wife not living with her husband I decided "the heck with this" and moved near his station in Hickman KY. He was at a station that worked on the Mississippi River. Well, low and behold after living together only a month I got pregnant with my first child William. I soon got homesick because I still was alone most of the time. Everytime Andy was in town, he ended up having to stand nightwatch and then was gone the next morning on another mission. I told him I wasn't happy being alone all the time and moved back home. I asked him to finish out his commitment to the Coast Guard and give it up. He did even though he loved it. Well, 6 months after William was born, I found out I was pregnant again. (Yes, it was Andy's) SHAME ON YOU! I had a little doll named Amanda Haley. We struggled like most poor couples do that come from Lonsdale/Western Heights area. Time and time again we faced hardship after hardship. Ten months after Amanada was ...Expand for more