Tuesday, August 31, 2004
OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER....1974
After our trip to Seattle we got caught up on the gardens and necessary house work. Mom and dad got ready for aunt Mary and Sadie to come visit (a cousin of mom and aunt Mary‘s). We visited back and forth and watched as the foursome played cards with gambler’s hearts each night. Not a one of them liked to lose so it was fun to watch their hands play out.
While they were here the folks took them to all the mills and springs around the area and even drove out to Tyrone to see the old farm. I went along for that as I hadn’t been to Tyrone in years. There was a new house….and the fences were good, the land was in pasture yet and some of the timber had been cut out. The old general mercantile stores that stood across the road from each other were gone. Time takes it’s toll on small communities. The young people have to leave to make a living and soon it’s just the old folks that are left. It takes the life right out of a place. Aunt Mary and Sadie were here over a week and we packed a lot into the short time.
I had a birthday dinner here for dad. Although we had celebrated his and Louis’ in Seattle I couldn’t let the day go by without a dinner. I had all of dad’s favorites…roast and gravy, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with cheese sauce, salad, hot rolls and cake. I decorated it pretty and when he came in and saw it he put his arms around it and said, “all for me….mine!!” with a big grin. It had his favorite boiled icing….after dinner when he was so full he was miserable, he glanced over at the cake and said, “Well, I guess you can all have some….”
The second week of November dad wasn’t feeling so well. I talked him in to seeing the doctor and took him so I could hear what the doctor had to say. The whole time dad was talking to him he was writing prescriptions and didn’t even look at dad. He finally said, “Well it sounds to me like you’re falling apart, Andy….” and dad said, “that’s exactly how I feel…like I’m falling apart.” Doc handed him the prescriptions and we stopped by the drug store to have them filled.
The next day we went to Springfield together, while Warren worked, and the three of us had a nice lunch and did some shopping. Dad asked me to drive coming back. If you knew my dad that was as unusual as the sun coming up in the West. He dozed on and off….and said, “If I had it to do over, I’d get power steering on this car.” (He had a new Ford Maverick) “That steering just wears me out on this little car.” I stuck it in the back of my mind, knowing my folks were getting older and changing.
Friday that week I was doing some sewing and trying to get it finished before the week-end when mom called and said dad wanted me to come up for coffee with them. I started to put them off but something made me say I would….that I would come about two o’clock. I watched the clock and reluctantly laid the sewing aside.
When I came through the door, dad was smiling. They had been to West Plains in the morning and bought a set of Corelle dishes. Dad brought me a cup of coffee in one of the cups and saucers and said, “This ought to taste good. It’s in a cup no one’s drank out of before and it’s a new pound of coffee. It can’t be better than this.” He sat down and told me they’d had a good steak dinner that mom fixed after they got home. The three of us sat visiting until about 3:45pm when I said I’d better go to start some supper and get my laundry in. Dad stood up and said, “Well, I’d better go finish what I started, too. I’ve got a stump out back I was cutting off at the ground so I can get over it with the mower.”
We headed for the door and dad was ahead of me……..he pulled his watch out and looked at it… “it’s a quarter till 4:00 he said…just time enough to finish what I started before 5:00 o’clock….on a Friday…quittin’ time. That’s a good way to wind up the week.” As he was going down the steps I playfully tapped him on the backside with my foot and said, “Dad, you’d better take it easy…one of these days mom is going to look out in the yard and you’ll be layin’ there.” He laughed and said in a comical way…. “yah, I know….I’m a baaadddd boy.” We got to the corner of their mobile home and before he went out of sight he held his arm up high, in a wave, and said, “So long, Esther”…………
I came home and got my clothes off the line and started to fold them when I heard a fumbling kind of scratching and hoarse yelling at the door…..it was mom…clutching her chest….she had run all the way to our place, crying and hysterical….. “I think dad’s dead, Esther, come and see“……… She had tried to call the ambulance but was so panicked she couldn’t get the number right….I took time to call Warren to tell him to get the ambulance and come quick.
When I reached the back yard with mom….there was dad. He was laying on his side with his left arm outstretched under his head. He looked like a little boy who became tired of playing and decided to rest. His hand was relaxed and when I looked at his face, I knew he was gone. I had never seen a dead person before but I will never forget the look in his eyes. They were focused straight ahead as if he were looking far away….there was no fear….only a look of peace and rest….as one who has traveled a long journey and sees the lights of home.
As I was bending over him, a little trickle of coffee bubbled out of the corner of his mouth……drank from a new cup. “I love you daddy, I love you,” I said and then stood up to give comfort to my mother………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
While they were here the folks took them to all the mills and springs around the area and even drove out to Tyrone to see the old farm. I went along for that as I hadn’t been to Tyrone in years. There was a new house….and the fences were good, the land was in pasture yet and some of the timber had been cut out. The old general mercantile stores that stood across the road from each other were gone. Time takes it’s toll on small communities. The young people have to leave to make a living and soon it’s just the old folks that are left. It takes the life right out of a place. Aunt Mary and Sadie were here over a week and we packed a lot into the short time.
I had a birthday dinner here for dad. Although we had celebrated his and Louis’ in Seattle I couldn’t let the day go by without a dinner. I had all of dad’s favorites…roast and gravy, mashed potatoes, cauliflower with cheese sauce, salad, hot rolls and cake. I decorated it pretty and when he came in and saw it he put his arms around it and said, “all for me….mine!!” with a big grin. It had his favorite boiled icing….after dinner when he was so full he was miserable, he glanced over at the cake and said, “Well, I guess you can all have some….”
The second week of November dad wasn’t feeling so well. I talked him in to seeing the doctor and took him so I could hear what the doctor had to say. The whole time dad was talking to him he was writing prescriptions and didn’t even look at dad. He finally said, “Well it sounds to me like you’re falling apart, Andy….” and dad said, “that’s exactly how I feel…like I’m falling apart.” Doc handed him the prescriptions and we stopped by the drug store to have them filled.
The next day we went to Springfield together, while Warren worked, and the three of us had a nice lunch and did some shopping. Dad asked me to drive coming back. If you knew my dad that was as unusual as the sun coming up in the West. He dozed on and off….and said, “If I had it to do over, I’d get power steering on this car.” (He had a new Ford Maverick) “That steering just wears me out on this little car.” I stuck it in the back of my mind, knowing my folks were getting older and changing.
Friday that week I was doing some sewing and trying to get it finished before the week-end when mom called and said dad wanted me to come up for coffee with them. I started to put them off but something made me say I would….that I would come about two o’clock. I watched the clock and reluctantly laid the sewing aside.
When I came through the door, dad was smiling. They had been to West Plains in the morning and bought a set of Corelle dishes. Dad brought me a cup of coffee in one of the cups and saucers and said, “This ought to taste good. It’s in a cup no one’s drank out of before and it’s a new pound of coffee. It can’t be better than this.” He sat down and told me they’d had a good steak dinner that mom fixed after they got home. The three of us sat visiting until about 3:45pm when I said I’d better go to start some supper and get my laundry in. Dad stood up and said, “Well, I’d better go finish what I started, too. I’ve got a stump out back I was cutting off at the ground so I can get over it with the mower.”
We headed for the door and dad was ahead of me……..he pulled his watch out and looked at it… “it’s a quarter till 4:00 he said…just time enough to finish what I started before 5:00 o’clock….on a Friday…quittin’ time. That’s a good way to wind up the week.” As he was going down the steps I playfully tapped him on the backside with my foot and said, “Dad, you’d better take it easy…one of these days mom is going to look out in the yard and you’ll be layin’ there.” He laughed and said in a comical way…. “yah, I know….I’m a baaadddd boy.” We got to the corner of their mobile home and before he went out of sight he held his arm up high, in a wave, and said, “So long, Esther”…………
I came home and got my clothes off the line and started to fold them when I heard a fumbling kind of scratching and hoarse yelling at the door…..it was mom…clutching her chest….she had run all the way to our place, crying and hysterical….. “I think dad’s dead, Esther, come and see“……… She had tried to call the ambulance but was so panicked she couldn’t get the number right….I took time to call Warren to tell him to get the ambulance and come quick.
When I reached the back yard with mom….there was dad. He was laying on his side with his left arm outstretched under his head. He looked like a little boy who became tired of playing and decided to rest. His hand was relaxed and when I looked at his face, I knew he was gone. I had never seen a dead person before but I will never forget the look in his eyes. They were focused straight ahead as if he were looking far away….there was no fear….only a look of peace and rest….as one who has traveled a long journey and sees the lights of home.
As I was bending over him, a little trickle of coffee bubbled out of the corner of his mouth……drank from a new cup. “I love you daddy, I love you,” I said and then stood up to give comfort to my mother………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
