Even at age 78, Marvin Taylor has embraced the idea of using text messages to communicate, if only for one reason. He loves it when he gets messages like this from his granddaughter: KATIE LOVES YOU.
Steve Flairty grew up feeling good about Kentucky. He recalls childhood trips orchestrated by his father, with the take-off points in Campbell County. The people and places he encountered then help define his passion about the state. “Kentucky by Heart” shares part and parcel of his joy. A little history, much contemporary life, intriguing places, personal experiences, special people, book reviews, quotes and even a little humor will, hopefully, help readers connect with their own “inner Kentucky.”
Grandpa Marvin and Katie Taylor, age 21, are “buds” in more than one way. First, they are very close at the heart level. Both of them get emotional when talking about their relationship. The two also are business partners, along with Grandma Taylor, in a flower and vegetable farm business they run on the outskirts of Nicholasville. They live on the same property, “across the field from each other,” they’ll tell you.
They work magic together, and have done so for many years. And that’s especially important since Marty Taylor, Katie’s father and Marvin’s son, was killed in a traffic accident when Katie was 5 years old.
For several years, I’ve been a happy customer of the two selling their produce out of the back of Grandpa’s pickup truck on Saturday mornings at the Wilmore Farmers Market. The harvest comes from what they grow at the Circle T Farm. I always receive a fair price, a good product and receive courteous service, making it an experience for which I look forward.
Their personalities are pleasant but differ somewhat. Katie is the more quietly serious and focused one; Marvin seems to have a conversation going on with anyone who happens to be standing nearby, with the topics including tractor or truck pulls, the Taylor family genealogy, how certain vegetables are raised, or his favorite—his granddaughter Katie.
Their enterprise, called Katie’s Fresh Garden Produce, started when she was 8. It undoubtedly came at an important time in both their lives.
“I had to kind of take up the slack for her missing her dad,” said Marvin. “For years, I drove her to and from school (Lexington Christian Academy), trying to farm at the same time.” Understandably, he sometimes let time slip away while focused on his work, causing him to be a little late. “Then I had to drive like crazy to get there before it was really late.” To lend his help for young Katie during that time, he said, was “a privilege.”
Katie, of course, now drives on her own to take classes at Midway College, where she recently graduated with an associate degree in nursing. She plans to start classwork there again in August to work toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She is fond of the school and what she calls “the small environment” of the college and town, which sets between Frankfort and Lexington. “I didn’t want to go to any big schools,” said Katie. “Here, I know all my teachers and classmates and they all know me.”
A very good student, she hopes to finish the degree in May, 2016, while taking 18 hours per semester. If that’s not challenging enough, she will also be working full-time as a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, in Lexington, though she still plans to be present and selling produce at Wilmore on Saturday mornings.
“I may show up wearing scrubs,” she said, laughing. After finishing the bachelor’s degree in May, Katie figures she’ll take at least a year off from academics to “work and pay off some student loans and then I will go back for my master’s.”
And what might she have in her future professional plans?
“I’m either going to do nursing administration or family nurse practitioner…but I’m just going to wait for whatever God opens the door to,” Katie said. “Right now I’m kind of open about it.”
Marvin, who Katie sometimes calls “Mr. T,” is “one of the most important people in my life,” she said. “He’s done a lot for me.”
Marvin talked of being proud of Katie’s gritty desire to move forward despite the loss of her father and the challenges of working her way through a successful college experience. “She’s a worker and a good person, and she has developed into quite a young lady,” he said. “She was the class speaker at her graduation, and I thought she did well for (being) my little granddaughter. I had a lot of hopes and wishes for her after she lost her dad…and she’s exceeded that.”
The college challenge has cut into Katie’s time helping with the planting of the vegetables and flowers, usually starting in late April. “I used to help plant but I now need to give all credit to Grandma and Grandpa since I have been in school,” she said. She admits that picking weeds from the garden has not been a favorite item for her in the farming operation, but she loves picking the vegetables on Friday nights with her grandparents, plus, of course, market time on Saturday mornings. Times, she said, where “I get to spend time with my grandparents and create memories that I will never forget.”
Katie has an older sister, Ashley, who Katie said is “doing well.” Her mother, Tracie Taylor, has been very important. “Mom is a wonderful Christian role model and has worked hard to support me and my sister as she has been alone.”
Then, there is Patty Taylor, or “Grandma Taylor.” Marvin is effuse in his praise of his wife of 53 years. “She’s the backbone of the whole thing, working behind the scenes. She spends a lot of time with the produce and the flowers. When Katie was young after losing her dad, Grandma always had dinner for her, her sister and her mom.”
Then Marvin, eyes twinkling, added a little of his gentle humor. “My wife deserves a special reward for putting up with me all these years. God will reward her in a special way.”
The close cross-generational partnership forged by Grandpa Taylor and Katie has helped finance only a portion for her educational expenses, to be sure. That’s why loans and work outside the farm are needed. However, the lessons learned from each other, along with a celebration of strong family and faith, make their bonding relationship a totally enriching experience—one that others might well emulate.
Northern Kentucky native Steve Flairty is a teacher, public speaker and an author of five books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and four in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. He is currently working on “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4,” due to be released in spring 2015. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly KyForward columnist and a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Read his KyForward columns for excerpts from all his books. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photo by Connie McDonald)