Letter to Editor

Regarding your special edition in the Sunday Joplin Globe (Jan. 28), let me address a few issues. I find it very surprising that you find it worth that much time, money and effort in slanderizing one man, a little country church and its beliefs. Do you think your readers care how much acreage is worth in northern Vernon County? Slow news day, I guess.

This is nothing but one of the millions of families on this earth with inner-family tensions. Does it make your staff feel better to broadcast to the area a dispute between one father and his son?

What kind of Christian repeatedly dishonors their own flesh and blood: a father and mother, who did nothing except bring a son into a very cruel world?

Why doesn’t your writer, Mr. McCoy, interview me: a sibling of Tim Gayman? I am Dana, third and youngest daughter of Dan and Deloris Gayman. Of course, all I have to tell are the good things that my father did for Tim and Sarah. They seem to have forgotten. The very fact that they remain together is a miracle in itself. However, that is a credit to his father and mother who have been together 43 years. Christ was always the center of our home. But that does not make for very interesting articles, I guess.

We all love and miss our brother and his children. It breaks our hearts to hear the repeated non-truths and twisted stories. Tim and Sarah, in truth had gone to Miami, Okla., to marry, against the wishes of both parents. Insisting on getting married, my father married them early in the morning, since they would not be persuaded otherwise. They were young, careless and in love. My father never pushed them to do anything. I find it surprising that Sarah keeps referring to that, when, it only reveals her current insecurities and shallow love for the very man she is married to.

After they married, they moved all over, trying to find the right job. Tim found his talent to be in finish carpentry. She left him for a short time, and we all begged her to come back, me included. Sarah’s main problem here was her inability to live near her in-laws, who were becoming financially successful.

She was unhappy with her financial situation, and Tim could do nothing but break his back for her, to no avail.

They took care of a huge, beautiful farm, were given a herd of cows to take care of, a truck, and endless things, but it was never enough. She insisted they liquidate everything and move to the city.

Since then, they have done nothing but rent, and moved 12 times I believe.

The only thing my father could be accused of is the endless generosity, and unconditional love for Tim and Sarah. He loved their children, and only wanted their happiness.

The relationship was fine even after they moved two hours away. How could they be manipulated from that distance?

One of the last times I saw Tim, he said how much he missed us, and was sorry he was not able to come up more often. It was an obvious time of distress in their marriage over Sarah’s dislike of her in-laws. I will not malign their name, because I still love and miss them. He is my brother. We were a large, close knit family. What is the evil in that?

There are five other children, including me, who can attest the complete and total absence of any physical, spiritual or mental abuse which they mention. Why do you not seek their opinion? There was discipline, there was love, there was instruction, there was affection. We were college educated, self-employed, contributors to our society. Our family was and is everything most families only hope to achieve.

Sarah was always seeking and searching to be something more than the mother of her children. She never went to any college, and always envied her sister-in-laws over that one fact alone. Why don’t you consider your sources, when you interview? She was married at age 17, and never held one job for more than a few weeks. When did she become an authority on anything?

I wrote today of my own accord . . . there is no manipulation here. I have a wonderful family. It might interest your readers to hear another side of the story.

Your readers need to know that this man, Dan Gayman, was the loving father of six children, with a happy wife of 43 years. When did it become a crime to be a family?

Dana Gayman Buttorff - Schell City