By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
Mrs. Wynell Reynolds was born at home near Cross Key on February 18, 1939, “right in the middle” of two brothers and two sisters. She graduated from West Limestone High School in 1956, and she married that same year. Her daddy was a farmer, “and we farmed with horses,” she told me. They grew cotton and corn. She grew up without a phone or TV, and she’ll tell you that she thinks that the greatest change in her lifetime has been the invention of both. She was on her smartphone when I came in to her room, and knows her way around Facebook I think better than I do.
Wynell and her husband Wesley first had two boys, David and Dwight. It was the early days of open-heart surgery, and three-year-old Dwight only lived for a few days after the surgery that they hoped would close up the hole in his heart. Wynell is glad that she got to hold him, and is full of faith that she will see him again, but that’s not a loss that any parent ever gets over completely. David was 5 at the time of his brother’s passing, and she says it was “really hard on him,” as it was on the rest of the family. Several years passed, and the Reynolds decided that they wanted to add to their family, so three more sons came along—Paul, Dwayne and Preston. Wynell worked for 29 years at Clements High School, first as a teacher’s aide, then later as a library assistant.
Wynell and her family have always fellowshipped with the Church of Christ, and her favorite scripture is Romans 8:28, which says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Her favorite hymn is “When We All Get To Heaven,” so we sang the chorus together: “When we all get to heaven/what a day of rejoicing that will be/When we all see Jesus/We’ll sing and shout the victory.”
We moved on to some other favorites:
Favorite color? Purple, or lilac. “Not too dark,” she said.
Favorite season? “Fall. I like spring, too, but that’s when I lost my son, so I really like fall better. I love the colors.”
Favorite food to cook? “Reynolds stew.” It’s a family favorite.
Favorite food to eat? That would be her mom’s pork, gravy, and biscuits. Wynell told me the biscuits were the best she ever ate, anywhere.
Favorite authors? Grace Livingston Hill and Mary Higgins Clark.
Mrs. Reynolds is an avid reader, and loves to do word search puzzles. She was working on a Bible word search puzzle whose theme was I Corinthians 13, most commonly known as “The Love Chapter.”
Favorite President? Harry Truman. She was young when he was president, but she remembers him well and thinks he was the best.
She has been at the Limestone Health Facility for rehab three times, and raves about the care she receives and the attentiveness of the staff. She took me down to the therapy room to tell them that she was going to be in the paper, and she told me that earlier they all teased her about who her favorite was. She smiled back with, “You ALL are!” She told me that if she ever has to be a permanent resident anywhere, this is where she wants to come.
I asked her if she had any advice for young people, and she replied, “Listen to your elders because they have been through things you haven’t. Ask them questions, and keep Christ in your life.” Those are good words no matter how old you are, from a sweet and wise woman named Wynell Reynolds.
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
