NATCHEZ &045; Four generations live together at a white house on Rembert Street, and Lavera Allen wouldn’t have it any other way.

Allen moved in to help take care of her aunt, Mary Jane Sims, and her daughter, Jennifer, niece Courtney Gibson and Courtney’s son Joshua share the house, too.

It’s a situation Lavera Allen is used to, since she grew up with aunts and uncles helping to raise her after her mother died when she was just 6.

&uot;They raised us like we were naturally their children,&uot; Allen said. &uot;They all pitched in. It’s like they say, it takes a village to raise a child.&uot;

Allen’s Aunt Mary helped take care of her, too, attending basketball games where Allen was a cheerleader and showing her an example of hard work.

Many family members owned businesses in the area in and around Franklin Street at the time, with Allen’s father heading a service station and Sims and her husband, Wyatt, running the service station in the middle of it all &045; the triangle at what is now Martin Luther King Jr. and St. Catherine streets. A barbershop is now at the same location.

Sims helped her husband run the books for the service station.

&uot;I worked there up until I retired,&uot; Sims said.

It was a busy time for the community, Allen recalled.

&uot;Growing up as a child, it was the most exciting time in my life,&uot; Allen said. &uot;Natchez has always been the most exciting place for me, to learn all the culture of living in a small town.&uot;

Both Allen and Sims wish the East Franklin Street area were as busy as it once was.

&uot;When the old schools and businesses closed down, there was no one to keep them going,&uot; Allen said.

Though many of the business owners were not formally educated, she said, they were successful.

&uot;It was entrepreneurship from self-made people,&uot; she said. &uot;We need that now. We need to show that you can do something other than just hang out on a corner.&uot;

Despite the changes in Natchez’s economy since that bustling time, Allen still believes in the future of the community.

&uot;I still think there’s a good future for Natchez,&uot; she said. &uot;Natchez pulls together when they need to.&uot;

And similarly, Allen said her family pulls together too, a trait she believes comes from their Christianity. Growing up, she said, she was in &uot;a house full of love.&uot;

&uot;That’s what I try to pass on to these kids.&uot;