R. R. 2, Brandon, Wisconsin 53919
Three O’clock in the morning seems to be thought time for
some of us. My rough draft pad travels with me wherever I go. It
helps to catch the fleeting of memorie’s moments, both happy
and sad, and its untidy pages seem to stretch ahead to a future
none of us can anticipate.
Right now I have a new grandbaby, Gwenn Catherine Harmann, lying
on her stomach, across my lap, as I sit here on the edge of the
bed. My pad is on my pillow. Our new Little Gwenn has just had her
two o’clock feeding and has burped like an old steam engine
belching out smoke. She has downed four ounces of formula and is
still chewing on her hands, somewhat. I don’t dare to feed her
anymore right now. I told her parents, yesterday, that she is a
country girl for sure, almost nine pounds at birth, pretty as a
picture and already eating like an old-time thresherman.
But her mama isn’t doing too well right now. Her husband
took her back to the hospital after being at home for four days.
They are feeding her intravenously as she has a diarrhea which has
drained her badly. They feared she was beginning to dehydrate. Her
natural supply of food for the baby dried up as a result and
Grandma took over the care of the baby. Oh, how sweet it is to hold
and care for this precious life! So joy and fear were mingled as
Mary’s temperature soared to 103.8 degrees F. She really gave
us a scare.
As we were struggling with this problem early in the week the
telephone rang. It was our daughter, Ginni, from De Soto, Kansas.
She was in tears as they had just rushed their middler, Brian, who
is ten, to the hospital with an appendix which was threatening to
rupture. He had surgery and drainage tubes in for three days. The
doctor told them one more day and they might have lost him.
Tomorrow my Mr. B. enters the hospital for hip surgery. So I
will head back for Brandon. Tom and Mary insist I must go home, and
of course, I want to be with him, but I am torn right down the
middle.
Daddy Tom is taking over the care of the two little ones while I
go home. He has a lesson in bathing and bottling the baby scheduled
for this morning. Besides our sweet baby we have another bright
spot around here, Christine Ann, who will be three in May. Last
night she handed me six books – yes — six books. How she giggled
as we read those funny little rhymes about a tooth brush who got
sick from disuse, among other things. As she giggled she even got
Grandma giggling in spite of everything. Then she looked up at me
with her bright eyes full of love and said, ‘You know, Grandma,
you’re really a good guy.’ Now what higher compliment could
I receive on a sad, sad day? Bless her little heart!
The tears we had been shedding around here sort of all dried up
as we listened to her happy chatter. In the morning, when I had
taken my hair down for combing she had said, ‘Oh Grandma, you
look just like the wicked old witch.’ Now, I ask you, how can I
be ‘a good guy’ and a ‘wicked old witch’ all in the
same day?
Christine and I ended our day by singing ‘Jesus loves me,
this I know – for the Bible tells me so.’ One beautiful thought
for old and young! Right now I don’t know how I could make it
without that wonderful love. In mid-afternoon I called my prayer
partner and told her of our crucial needs. She called the other
prayer partners promptly. I can feel their prayers and concern
surrounding me. What does the old hymn say about ‘He giveth and
giveth and giveth again.’
With that thought in mind, I will make the one hundred miles
north again to face another trial, and perhaps, back here in a few
days, Gwenn has settled into a sound sleep so Grandma had best join
her.
It is almost five days later as I pick up my pen to finish this.
My husband’s surgery is over with and he is doing fine. He
looks so relieved, and I am rejoicing with him. It was almost six
hours from the time he was wheeled out of his room on a stretcher
until he was wheeled back into the room in his bed. One leg was in
a swing and tubes running in and out of him. It gave me a few very
bad moments to see him this way. The waiting, I thought, had been
bad enough. The complete hip joint was replaced and a new technique
used on him. Dr. Hartman had just attended an Orthopedic
Surgeon’s Meeting in Las Vegas where he learned there is a new
sealer they use to prevent so much glue running down into the bone.
It makes for a better seal.
Our young mother, Mary, is still in the hospital but they have
found the cause of her trouble. She has a form of food poisoning
called salmonella. We can’t imagine how it happened as no one
else had any trouble. The Hospital Staff is probably blaming me,
and I find myself blaming them. But, Praise God, she is on the mend
and will be going home in a day or two. I did not go back to the
Sturtevant-Racine area. Frankly, I am drained both physically and
psychologically. My oldest sister is recovering from a broken hip
and wrist in Florida, and a good friend had spine surgery last week
and they do not know whether all function will return. My sister is
seventy eight.
I did not intend to pour all of our troubles into the eyes and
ears of you dear readers. But at the present time I have all I can
do to write at all, and I have a deadline. Life can be mighty
sobering at times, and this is one of those times. God bless you in
His care. He blessed us with one and a half inches of rain today.
So — we look hopefully to the future, and certainly we look up to
Him.
