[piano music playing] VESTA NEWMAN: Do you ever sing this at church?

(SINGING) [piano music playing] You can vent your feelings off through music and-- [plays piano notes] [music playing] [vehicle humming] ERIN MCGOFF: As you get older, do you think you think about death more often?

VESTA NEWMAN: Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Like Fern Howard said, you don't-- you used to could think 20 years down the road.

Now you don't hardly think more than five.

[chuckles] Maybe a year, you know?

You don't know.

And you don't know at any age.

FERN HOWARD: In my journal.

Yeah.

See?

Here's-- you see that.

January the 1st, 2002.

Thank you, Lord, for another year.

You know, I write that.

And, but, I'm never alone when I've got my journal and my Bible.

[chuckles] Do you want to see the house?

Here's the breakfast nook, and all of us ate here, but here's our wedding picture right here.

Be sure and don't get the dust.

[laughs] This was my mother in law's ducks.

[piano notes] Oop.

[chuckles] [piano notes] I had five children, and that's their senior pictures.

And this is my oldest son, Danny, and he died of cancer, but here's his little grandson and I just love that picture.

I do puzzles every year, but this is my first one for this year.

And [chuckles] last night when I went to church, I had the trees in here.

And I had a bunch of trees here, and I didn't have no place to put them.

And last night before I went to bed I thought, those trees have to go in there.

So I tore it apart, and it fit in there.

Terry, when he went to college, he'd come home and he said, mom, you've got your stuff in every room.

And I said, well, I'm the only one here, so.

Easy chocolate cake.

There's my recipe.

It's getting kind of dilapidated.

So I ate three biscuits yesterday.

When I fixed them and had biscuits and gravy, sausage biscuits and gravy, and I ate three biscuits.

[chuckles] And then last night I ate another one, so.

There's some people here in town that I couldn't live here by myself if I didn't have them.

Haskell Hitt.

Oh, Haskell helps me.

The last job he did was starting my pickup, and then he fixed the fence out here.

[blinds squeak] That fence over there, it blew down.

He fixed it, and I didn't even know he came.

And he told me-- [blinds squeaking] Hmm.

Don't take a picture of this.

[laughs] Oh.

[blinds squeaking] What in the world?

[blinds squeaking] I was stirring up this cake, but we've been talking, and you know how I am when I'm talking.

I might goof up.

I already told her it's your cake, so.

[laughing] And you want it to taste as good as usual.

We'll see if it tastes good with her.

[laughs] VESTA NEWMAN: You can get Philomena and Irene and you, and say the old ladies of Darrouzett.

(FERN LAUGHING ON PHONE) Yeah.

FERN HOWARD (ON PHONE): OK. VESTA NEWMAN: OK. Bye bye.

[dog barks] Is it Haskell?

[dog barks] [door opens] HASKELL HITT: It's supposed to blow through pretty fast this-- VESTA NEWMAN: Yeah, it is.

HASKELL HITT: --but it's still-- that wind is supposed to be miserable at 12:00.

Get up pretty-- VESTA NEWMAN: Yeah.

HASKELL HITT: --high.

And there's another one right up-- VESTA NEWMAN: What's he doing?

HASKELL HITT: --in the corner here.

(STRAINING) If I can get to him.

VESTA NEWMAN: What are you doing, Haskell?

HASKELL HITT: Killing a wasp.

VESTA NEWMAN: Oh, good.

Is it dead?

HASKELL HITT: Look at that.

You know that is?

[door opens] [door creaks open] [car engine humming] [music playing] VESTA NEWMAN (VOICEOVER): Haskell Hitt.

Man can do but almost anything.

He grew up in Mississippi.

One of 14 children.

He was number seven.

They were sharecroppers.

He left there.

He didn't want to go back because they were poor.

He went into the Army, moved to Prairieton, and finally here in Darrouzett.

And his wife, she died at 60, and he also lost a son, but he met my sister Carol and they got married.

They were married for 12 years.

The night it happened, I saw the lights of the ambulance and fire truck, or whatever it was.

Pretty soon they brought Haskell and his face was red, and his hands were burned, and he got Carol out.

He was burned badly.

That's why it's so remarkable that he does what he does.

HASKELL HITT: See, they let me put Carol right here, and they normally don't do that.

I need to come back and put some caulking on this.

[coughs] It'd keep it from getting moist on and freezing.

It may buck it off.

I use liquid nail to set in on that block.

[clears throat] [music playing] You know, I'm OK with everything.

And if I died today I'd be OK.

I'd be happy to go anytime.

I don't fear death.

Everybody wants to live long as they can, but that's the good Lord-- that's his choice, I guess you could say.

[birds chirping] [crowd chatter] SPEAKER 1: Hello, Ms. Fern.

FERN: Hi, well, hi.

SPEAKER 1: How are ya?

FERN: I'm fine.

SPEAKER 1: Good.

[crowd chatter] FERN: There it is.

[chuckles] She took a picture of me while I was baking this cake.

[laughs] SPEAKER 1: Now she's taking a picture of that cake.

She'll take a picture of me taking it and eating it probably.

FERN: But, anyway, she interviewed me while I was making it, so don't tell them what it's going to taste like.

'Cause I'm not very good when anybody is around.

[crowd chatter] ALL: (SINGING) Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday, God bless you, Happy Birthday to you.

SPEAKER 2: Thank you.

Thank you.

SPEAKER 3: And we just ask a blessing upon this time that's spent together tonight.

We pray that our conversations and our actions will bring glory to you.

We leave it in your very capable hands tonight.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

ALL: Amen.

[crowd chatter] SPEAKER 3: OK. New business.

We have decided to try to set a date for our pancake supper, and David was looking there and mentioned a while ago the Lutheran church.

Pancake supper is the 26th of February, so we don't want to interfere with it.

[music playing] FERN (VOICEOVER): I miss our businesses.

We used to have a lumber yard, an elevator, grocery stores, cafes, two cafes, hotel.

Guess I don't know any different, but I like it.

[music playing] ERIN MCGOFF: Do you get down with the sadness sometimes?

VESTA: Sometimes.

On TV sometimes some of the things are-- people can be so cruel to each other.

And I just feel overwhelmed about it.

As the number of people in the world, which wouldn't be so bad, but each person is a world in themselves.

They have feelings, and ups and downs.

You know, you can't just dismiss them.

[music playing] ♪ [crickets chirping]