Waive Junior Remembering
Mildred

            I was seven or eight when my sister Blanch Mildred was born.  I really loved her. I can remember Grandma holding her and I’d show her the cat and how she would laugh.  Her years were very short though.  She was born October 2 and died in June of the following year.  Lots of children were having mumps, and this old doctor said she had swollen glands.  He operated on her and blood poisoning set in and she died.  Dad and Ha never told us kids that she was so sick, but I knew.  I would make believe I was sick so I wouldn’t have to go to school for I was afraid something would happen to her and I wouldn’t be there.  I remember one day Dad took us to school and. I made believe I was real sick.  We stopped at the grocery store and our neighbor, Ray Zoll, was there and he said to give me some castor oil and I’d be fine.  Boy, was I ever afraid I’d have to take that stuff.  One day, a couple of weeks later, my sister Hazel wanted me to go fishing with her but I didn’t want to go.  She tried to drag me but I still persisted not to go along, therefore, she went without me and I fell asleep.  It had been a real hot day on this particular day and that night I didn’t want to go to bed. Ma had laid down on the bed with Mildred so I sneaked down and sat on the stair steps. Grandma asked Ma if I could sit on the porch with her and she said I could.  The neighbors sheep and lambs were across the road in the pasture feeding and playing; the lambs were blaying; the dogs howling. During this time, Ma came out carrying Mildred and told us that the baby had just died. I will never forget that night. I experienced my first sorrow at this time; being the month of June, the roses were out in Michigan so now when I smell a rose, my mind goes to baby Mildred and the night she died.
 
            When Jack was four or five years old he got pneumonia and was very sick. Dad also had it several times that I can remember – one time he got it while chopping wood in the woods during winter.  His father’s only full—brother, William, was visiting us.  They took Hazel and me over to Freddie and Ida Millers to stay while Dad was sick.  It was so cold, people had to keep their stoves going all night. They made me sleep with Ida and her daughter, Iola. I cried but wouldn’t tell them why I was crying --and it was because I wanted to sleep with Freddie instead of Ida!  They also wanted me to take castor oil while I was there.  I can still remember standing on a chair and all the kids (Hazel, Iola, dare, Charlie and Henry — Charlie and Henry were young men about 17 and 19) begging me to take the castor oil. They were laughing and I was crying.  So I said ok, I’d take it if I could take it our of that little glass in the china cabinet (which was a little whiskey glass) so I guess I took it! … I knew Dad was real sick during this time as the Doctor from Burnips stayed for days at the house and took care of him. Thanks to modern medicine, many lives have been saved when it used to mean death.
 
When I was around- ten years old, a girl came down with diphtheria in school therefore the doctor gave everyone shots. I can remember my arm swelling up three times as large as its normal size and turning all black and blue.