Sharon Molloy Kelley

In 1960, between my freshman and sophomore year, I moved from Spokane, Washington to Childress and became a part of the Childress High School sophomore class. My freshman class in Spokane was bigger than the entire enrollment of CHS. What an adventure! I loved being a part of Childress High School, the teachers, the friends, the clubs and being an office assistant. In my senior year, I met and fell in love with Billy Smothermon, who graduated in 1959.We married late in 1963 and in 1967 our first son, Dean was born. In 1973 our son, Kevin, was born. We were so happy. We thought we had the rest of our lives together and planned as though we did. However, in July of 1980, my sons lost their father and I lost my best friend. The boys were 13 and 6 years old. What a journey lay ahead for us. By God’s grace we made it, mostly fun, some difficult times, but always interesting. I worked as a beautician, in a dress store, managed S & H Green Stamps, was a church secretary and then went to work for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (finally a job with benefits!!)

In 1995, with both boys graduated from Texas Tech, I moved with the prison system to Lubbock. I turned 50 that year, sold my house in Childress, bought a house in Lubbock, started a new job, found a great church and new friends and sadly lost both of my parents.
Whew!! I didn’t have time for a mid life crisis!!. I loved everything about Lubbock except the traffic. And I thought I was settled into life as it would always be!

In 2000, I got a call from my old high school sweetheart, Ray Kelley. We had “gone steady” the last part of my sophomore year until he moved to Midland to become a draftsman for the oil companies. Sadly, Ray’s first wife, Comilla, died of cancer after they had been married 37 years. Ray’s family and I had always been friends and his sister told him I was still single. Ray called me and it was as though we had only talked a couple of weeks before. It was such a natural thing, I new after the first “date” that I wanted to be with him always. I had been single TWENTY YEARS and missed having a mate. Ray and I married in 2001, he is my best friend, our families are combined, we now have Dean, from Nashville, Kevin and his beautiful wife, Jennifer and the joy of our lives, our granddaughter Claire Elise, from Abilene, our beautiful daughters, Monica Kelley and Katrina Kelley McMullen, her fun and talented husband Courtland all from the Dallas area. I no longer think that this is the way life will always be, I just sit back and wait for what God has in store for us. It is always so much better than I could ever imagine!