August 23, 2006
Walter was a great Dad; had much more patience, than I, so I tried to back him up when he was handling a crisis. I considered it my job! He would simply talk to them quietly, and seemed to get his point across every time, while I could jump up and down, and make a lot of noise, and all the time I knew that they were simply waiting for me to get it off my chest, so they could be on their way!
Well, my dear, you asked about our life before Kevin joined us, plus a question or two. I did get a chuckle when you asked why there was such a gap between the twins and Kevin! I guess you could chalk it up to nerve on my part. That first year with two babies who had colic day and night stayed fresh in my mind for a long while. Finally, God decided that we should give it another "Whirl"! My doctor, who I had with the twins had retired, so I needed to choose another one, and I really picked the best; a woman doctor who was willing to go to great lengths to see that we could enlarge our family. Her name was Ellen Carter, and I shall bless her all my life. All the time I stayed in bed trying to hang on to that little one, she would stop by the house, on numerous occasions to test my blood, and on three occasions dispatched Walter on a hurried trip into Los Angeles to the Red Cross Blood bank to pick up the "B" positive blood that I needed, and she couldn't find in the Pomona hospitals. On my very first visit to her office, she checked me, and asked if I wanted this baby, and when I replied "Yes" she said, "well, it's not in a good position on the uterus, so there is just a 50/50 chance of a good outcome, but we'll give it a try. Every time I had to go to the hospital for a transfusion she met me there to administer it. My original contract with her was for $ 100, and I had that paid within the first three months, so after Kevin was born, and the doctor took care of him while he was in the incubator for three months, even weighing him from time to time. She insisted on zooming up the temperature in the nursery, warming a blanket on the scale, etc. The night nurse used to snatch him out of the incubator sometime without all that preparation, so she could show Walter when he made his nightly milk delivery. Anyway, when I finally asked the doctor why we hadn't received a bill for all the extra attention she replied that we were fully paid up. Her payment was seeing Kevin grow and thrive. She was later promoted to the top doctor (I forget the word for it) at the hospital, and I like to think it was because she stuck to her thought of helping us when the other doctors criticized it.
Another question you asked was about Walter's vocation. After my Dad retired from the grocery business we, plus Jack, my brother, and one other fellow bought the inventory, so were in the grocery business for many years. Three months after we took over we were robbed at gun point one night, and lost $ 4500, and we had no robbery insurance. My brother later left when he was drafted into the Korean war, and started in the inventory business after his time in the air force; and became a multi-millionaire. Such is LIFE!