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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThey were married on Dec. 4, 1965, in the living room at Linda\u2019s brother\u2019s house, which \u2014 to my complete surprise \u2014 was inside my next-door neighbor\u2019s home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t long before their sons, Travis and Tommy, joined their little family. But, shortly after Travis turned 16, just moments after hugging his mother goodbye, he was injured in a car accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you have to take your child off of life support, that\u2019s one of the worst pains you can ever go through,\u201d Linda said through tears. \u201cWhen Travis passed, I went into a deep depression, and I know that was hard on Junior because I seemed to take it out on him. But one day, I said, \u2018Lord, I can\u2019t do this by myself.\u2019 I didn\u2019t want to see people or talk to anyone, and I got into my own little shell. Junior told me, \u2018We are going to get through this together.\u2019 We had a lot of support from our church family at First Church of the Nazarene, especially from our pastor at the time, Ron Dewitt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the accident, a man in Maryland received Travis\u2019 heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was on his deathbed, but because of Travis, he has lived 31 years extra. We have remained in contact with him, and his wife was expecting their son during the exact time our daughter-in-law was expecting our grandson. Both boys are named Zachary.\u201d Junior added, \u201cIf the Lord wouldn\u2019t have been with us when Travis died, we would have made a mess of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Donegans agree that while difficult times frequently drive a wedge between husbands and wives, for them, it was these times that cinched them closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe constantly lean on each other,\u201d said Linda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Losing Travis wasn\u2019t their only tragedy. When Tommy turned 16, he was also in a terrible car accident. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere were five people involved in that wreck. Tommy always said it should have been him killed and not Travis. His brother was the quiet one. He never even attended a dance before he died. This put Tommy into a deep depression, and he got into things he shouldn\u2019t have. I wrote Tommy a letter, and I said, \u2018It\u2019s as if I\u2019ve lost both my sons in the wreck that took Travis.\u2019 After that, Tommy turned his life around. He is now attending Trevecca Nazarene University, and he serves in the jail ministry in Moore County. Now, he calls himself \u2018The Custodian for Christ\u2019 over at Cascade Elementary School, where he works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Junior spent 25 years as a tour guide at Jack Daniel\u2019s Distillery, and Linda worked at Economy Pen and Pencil for 23 years before she quit to stay home with their sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI never dreamed I would see the age of 81,\u201d said Junior. \u201cMy parents and brothers died in their 60s, so my chances weren\u2019t very good. But the love of a good woman has brought me through it. I retired early so that Linda and I could travel. We have seen places I never thought we\u2019d live to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Together, the Donegans have also faced a head-on collision four years ago. As the car struck them, Linda clung to Junior\u2019s hand and said, \u201cI\u2019ll see you on the other side,\u201d before she blacked out. They have also faced two recent cancer diagnoses for Linda, and the year before Junior retired, she suffered a brain aneurysm, and her doctors labeled her as a \u201cwalking miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides gifting her with jewelry on special occasions and leaving her notes, Junior also drives Linda to her weekly hair appointments and monthly nail appointments. For their 55th anniversary, the two celebrated by watching the Elvis movie at the drive-in theater in Tullahoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf people around town see me, they are also going to see Linda because we are always together,\u201d said Junior with a smile. \u201cOur secret is love and support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Linda quickly added, \u201cAnd always being there for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd having a good, loving family and church family,\u201d said Junior. GN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The year was 1965, and 22-year-old Leonard \u201cJunior\u201d Donegan had just returned home from serving in the United States Air Force. He smoothed back his dark hair to set the pomade and took one last glance at his reflection in the mirror. Though his brother, Terry, had set up this \u201cblind date,\u201d Junior had already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":23563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/shelbyville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/03\/1-1024x683.png\")
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