PHOTO BY Samantha Hillis / MPW.59 PHOTO BY Samantha Hillis / MPW.59
  • Tragic Beginnings
  • By Samantha Hillis, Western Kentucky University
  • The 59th Missouri Photo Workshop / Chillicothe, Mo.
  • Dillion and Ashley Yardley's parents were killed in a motorcycle accident in June. Within days, their aunt, Jayne Alkire, stepped up, adding the children to her own family of six. Jayne and her husband, Jim, felt they could give the children a stable home life.

    Jayne already had a full life. But it got a little fuller with the addition of 11-year-old Ashley and 14-year-old Dillion. Jayne cut back from a full-time job as the municipal court clerk in Chillicothe to 7/10 so that she could be at home when the kids got home from school. Jim and Jayne are in the process of adding on to the house. Laundry is a huge chore and is almost a full-time job on its own; at the end of a day Jayne is mentally and physically exhausted, but knows raising the children is her purpose in life ­ her own children and the her niece and nephew. She strives to achieve togetherness and harmony in their expanded family.

    Jayne and Jim have added a new addition to their home to release the crowed rooms. Six-year-old daughter, Jullian, and 11- year old niece, Ashley, are running and ready to start their new lives ahead.



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