Moving to Walla Walla

The next year was a most heartbreaking time for me. Earl was in bed a lot of the time. That left me with all the work to do. What with taking care of Earl, looking after John and George, doing the inside work as well as the outside work, I got very little rest. There was 800 turkey poults to feed, etc. fifteen lambs on the bottle, pigs, horses, calves to feed as well as cows to milk and feed.

In July, Earl went to the V.A. Hospital in Boise, and in the middle of September was called to come in for an examination.

John had started to second grade in school, but only went for a week when he came down with scarlet fever. Then George, who was about ten months old, caught it. The day before George took sick, Earl had left for Boise, and I was alone on the island with no boat, as Earl had taken it to the other shore when he left.

The boys got worse. I was frantic. Then providence stepped in. A neighbor man came and called across the channel to see if we needed anything.

"Get the doctor. Get the doctor. Hurry!" was all I could scream. In about three hours he was back with Dr. Sears and a neighbor lady to help. All I could do was cry.

Both boys had complications and Doctor Sears stayed on the island for two days. Then she left and Mrs. Bodmer (I called her Aunt Mary) stayed for a week longer. By that time, the kids were getting along fine.

All this time, I hadn't heard from Earl. Then three days after Aunt Mary left, he came home. His news: He had three days to settle affairs at home and then he was to report in at Walla Walla V.A. Hospital. The doctors held out little hope that he would ever get well, telling him ten years would be a maximum life span.

So we had to move. I wanted to stay on the farm, but Earl was wiser. It would have been impossible for me to handle the work, and it was a problem at best to get John to school. When Earl left, the kids were still unable to travel, so I stayed until I sold off the turkeys. I had enough money to pay all our bills and buy a ticket to Walla Walla. We landed in Walla Walla a few days after George's first birthday, the 15th of December. No money, no place to go, strangers in a strange town with Christmas just ahead.

That night we stayed in the McFeeley Hotel. Next morning, we (John, George, and me) went to get breakfast. (Here's where my luck begins.) It was a very small restaurant and the woman who waited on us was kind. I asked her if she could tell me where I might rent a small, cheap place to live. Wonder of wonder! She said she was the owner of an apartment house and would rent me a small garret room for $8 a month. So we moved in.

Christmas day, Earl got a pass and came to visit us. But as he couldn't climb all those stairs, we visited in the landlady's living room for a couple of hours.