Monday, September 30, 2002 - Another Dear One Gone On Before

 

We spent most of last week trying to get sick kids well and keep well kids from getting sick, and wondering if we were fighting a losing battle.  Caleb was having a lot of trouble with asthma, and stayed home from school all week.  Tuesday, when it seemed his nebulizer, inhalers, and albuterol syrup weren’t doing any good, we got him a prescription for Prednisolone, a type of Prednizone, which started helping after the second dose.  By Thursday, Lydia’s cold was in her chest, she had a fever, and by Friday I thought she either had pneumonia or asthma, one or the other.  We were unable to see the doctor until Saturday morning, so, in the meanwhile, I started giving her Caleb’s albuterol syrup and letting her take a few treatments with his nebulizer machine, which did help.

Thankfully, my diagnosis was wrong on both counts; it was merely a bad cold, something similar to bronchitis.  The doctor gave us a prescription for Bioxin, since Lydia is allergic to Amoxicillin.

Wednesday morning when Victoria got up and tried talking, no sound would come out--no sound whatsoever.  She started to laugh--but could make no noise.  She attempted to clear her throat--and discovered that her throat-clearer didn’t work, either.  So she stood and grinned at me until I gave her a spoonful of cough syrup; and after that she managed to talk, albeit in a decidedly unVictoria-like voice.

Tuesday afternoon, Larry’s cousin, Arthur, died of cancer.  He was only 47 years old.  That’s too young to die.  He’d been sick for five years, and he and his family have had a long, trying siege.

That same day, an almost 2,000-foot tower in western Nebraska fell as a construction crew was preparing to reinforce it so they could put up another, bigger antenna.  Two workers were killed.

One afternoon Victoria was marching through the house, jerking her large stuffed horse along by a leash she had fastened around his neck.  "Come on, you horse you!" she ordered him, giving him a mighty yank.

Of course he came, tumbling wildly.  "He's quite an obedient thing, really," she informed the room at large.

I’ve been cutting out material since last Wednesday.  A week later, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get done with everything I wanted to cut out and sew.  One day, just about the time I finished a few chores, knowing that the table was all clean, and looking forward to completing my cutting, Hannah and Aaron arrived--material in hand, Hannah expecting to cut it out on our table, which is bigger than hers.  As Hannah didn’t feel well, and I know from much experience that leaning over a table cutting things out while in that state of affairs is not the very best use of one’s air space, if you know what I mean, and if you don’t, I’m not going to tell you, I cut it out for her.  It was a dress of black broadcloth, and she wanted to wear it to the funeral.

Joseph came home early Wednesday afternoon because it was rainy, so we--Joseph, Caleb, Victoria, and I--went to Bomgaar’s in Schuyler (a department store that especially caters to the needs of area farmers and ranchers and their families) so he could get himself some jeans, gloves, and boots.  He also got himself a couple of toys--a springy little four-wheeler and a small pickup.  After he moved upstairs, we’d discovered that he was rather short on room decorations…so that’s the purpose, so he said, for which he was buying the little vehicles.

Hester and Lydia stayed home, supposedly to do homework; but when we returned, there they were outside playing.

Later, Hannah brought over her partially-sewn dress.  Her machine is still not working right, and will not do anything other than straight stitches; so she cannot overlock or hem.  It also refuses to sew nicely through a zipper.  Further, there was a problem with the front pleats where they met in an inverted V at the side.  On the front of the pattern envelope, it says Easy; but, as I told Hannah, that is indeed a matter of opinion.  I have sewn the pattern she used, and, especially the first time I used it, I did not at all believe it was Easy, even when I had sewn a good deal longer than Hannah has.  I fixed the pleats, put in the zipper, hemmed dress and sleeves, and overlocked all the seams.  Hannah then took it back home, where she put gold rickrack on it, sewing it on with a crisscross stitch of heavy black thread, so that it didn’t even look like rickrack, but rather a series of small gold waves.  She’s so clever with things like that!

Hannah told me she’d made herself a jumper, last week, I think, of brushed black cotton, a shiny fabric.  When it was done, she tried it on and then asked Bobby, “Do I look like I’m wearing a garbage bag?”

        Aaron likes to play with Hannah’s walkie-talkie.  However, when the battery is running low, it periodically makes a loud staticky noise, which frightens Aaron and makes his eyes get big.  He immediately runs for Hannah, holding the gadget out for her to take.  Well, a couple of days ago he picked it up--and inadvertently put his finger on the button that makes it ring.  To make matters worse, he had accidentally turned the volume all the way up.

Rrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnggg--nnnnggg--nnnnggg--nnnnggg!!! said the walkie-talkie.

Poor little Aaron jumped out of his hide, gasped, flung that walkie-talkie into the garbage with all his might and main, and then fled for dear life.

         Thursday morning, a little before nine o’clock, I heard on the scanner that three Hispanic men had robbed the U.S. Bank in Norfolk.  They’d escaped in a stolen white Subaru--and it had a Star Navigator on it.  Smart, eh?

And then the dispatcher came back on and announced, “There are five reported 10-65s.”

That meant five deaths--four bank employees and one customer.  Throughout the day, I listened to the radio…  They caught the men in a stolen pickup around noon, in O’Neill.  Shortly thereafter, the FBI located the Subaru in a farmer’s pond, still giving off its navigator signals, which is how they found it.  A fourth man was discovered walking down a sidewalk in Norfolk; he’d been the one to case the bank minutes before the holdup.

All that shooting and fleeing took place in only forty seconds--and they didn’t even come away with any money for their efforts. 

Later in the day, a police officer from Norfolk shot and killed himself some distance out of town--because he’d some time earlier made a mistake that allowed one of the murderers to go free after being picked up with a hidden weapon.  The officer had run the weapon number through his computer, but neglected to learn that it was stolen, because he’d accidentally transposed a couple of the numbers.  So the man walked.  And the officer disposed of himself because of it.  What a senseless, selfish, godless thing to do.  That officer had six children!  Isn’t that terrible?  He only added misery to misery.

There was a gentle rain part of the day.  Victoria thinks it’s great sport to go off to school holding an umbrella over her head.  Away she trots down the sidewalk to kindergarten, long curls bobbing, or ponytail swinging.

That morning, I finished the last thing I planned to cut out, bringing the number (including the dress I cut out for Hannah) up to 42 things.  Once done with that, I started taking all those sliding piles of material off the couch and loveseat and putting them back into my fabric closet, trying to do so with some assemblage of order.  It sho’ ’nuff takes longer to put everything back neatly and tidily than it did to drag it all out, helter-skelter!

After Larry came home that evening, we went to the funeral home.  Dorcas and Teddy had gone before us, but the five younger children stayed home, as several of them were not feeling well.  Then we returned home, I curled the girls hair, and Larry went to the grocery store.

Friday morning, I prepared the food for the reception after the funeral.  I first made three carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting--and Larry had gotten something I’d never seen before:  Betty Crocker mixes that contain everything you need--including a disposable pan and the frosting.  All you have to add is 2/3 cup of water; the oil and eggs are already in there.  I tell you, that’s the lazy cook’s delight!

While the cakes were baking, I made two loaves of sandwiches--sliced turkey, mozzarella cheese, and lettuce.  Hester took them to the church for me at noon.  By then, Lydia was quite sick, and I stayed home with her.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting material away--and it actually got all done.

We went to the doctor Saturday morning.  After listening to Lydia’s lungs, the doctor thought perhaps she had asthma--and she was wheezing.  But after looking at her throat and learning that she had a fever of 100°, he decided that it wasn’t asthma, thank goodness.  He gave her a prescription for bioxin; she is allergic to Amoxicillin.

After we got home, I started sewing Hester’s black jumper with the small charcoal flowers printed on it.  It is almost done.  Now if we can just find her a nice white blouse amongst all of Hannah and Dorcas’ hand-me-downs!  I know we have one.  Somewhere.

Sunday morning, Robert had a very special announcement to read:  it was Teddy and Amy’s wedding invitation.  Robert told us that Teddy had said, a couple of months ago, that the date--October 13^th--was coming too quickly.

“Well, Teddy,” Robert reassured him, “that can be taken care of, you know,”  implying that the date could most assuredly be moved back to a later time.

“But Teddy didn’t want it ‘taken care of’,” continued Robert, “and, as he hasn’t complained since, I guess he still doesn’t want it taken care of!”

         The family came for dinner Sunday afternoon--all but Keith and Esther.  We had a roast that Larry seasoned so perfectly he didn't even put ketchup on it, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, fresh peaches that were so scrumptious they tasted like candy (according to Victoria), and buttermilk biscuits.  For dessert, there was spice cake with cream cheese frosting and French vanilla ice cream.
 

I stayed with Mama tonight.  This time, I took my big scrapbook and a pile of letters, put them into chronological order, and glued them into the book, finishing just as Victoria and Caleb arrived from church.  I sat in one of Mama’s recliners that has rollers (and vibrators and heat, if you want it) that go up and down one’s back.  Ahhhhh…  I wanted to take it home with me.  Do they make desk chairs like that?

After church, Larry, Caleb, Victoria, and I went to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for Esther, who turned 25 Friday, the 27^th.  (Yes, yes; I know I’m late.)  A couple of months ago, I gave her a little wicker chair with a lacy, ruffly stuffed bear in it; but that wasn’t enough.  As I told Esther, that was just a tidbit.

We gave her a cinnamon candle in a fluted-edged ceramic dish like a pie plate; it has three wicks in it.  We also got an oven mitt, a potholder, and a kitchen towel in an apple design on hunter green check--and Esther said it was the exact same pattern as a number of other things in her kitchen.  That was lucky!--I knew she had apples, but didn’t know the exact pattern.

And now, I very definitely hear my sewing machine and all those fresh-cut-out pieces of fabric calling me.  In fact, they’re calling very loudly!!!

So I’d better go see what they want.