November

November is the birth month of my brother Richard, the 23rd of the month to be exact. He was born at home when we lived on Bliss Blvd, in Iowa Falls, Iowa, I always think of him in relation to Thanksgiving and often wonder if Mom and Dad thought of his birth as a special Thanksgiving present to the family.

Several days after Richard's birth, when Dr. Wray asked what name he should put on the birth certificate, Grandma A, who was in the room, quickly piped up and said there would be no Johns in the family. Her comment took Mom by surprise.. The first three boys, had family names from Dad's side of the family and they planned to name the baby John after her father.  Dad was at the office and unable to discuss the matter, but Mom, ever ready to handle a crises, thought of the honorable character in the novel she was reading and promptly said the name would be Richard Lee. We usually called him Dick in those growing up years.

Being the oldest child in the family, I remember my younger siblings from their earliest years. By the time Richard came along, Adeline and I were both experienced in minor ways of helping Mom and we often changed wet diapers, including Richard's.

One afternoon when I came home from school, I sensed something was wrong the moment I opened the front door. There was a medicinal odor and Dad quickly came to the door and told me to be very quiet and to make certain when the other kids came from school, they too had to be very quiet. He said Dick had had an accident early that morning and the Dr was still in the bedroom with him and Mom.

Richard had gotten his arm caught in the wringer of the washing machine as it was running. When Mom had gone upstairs to gather the bed linens for laundering, Richard had managed to climb up on a chair to see the machine and that's when the accident occurred. When Mom heard the screams she came running and was horrified to see what had happened.

Fortunately the soft tissues of the underarm were injured but not the muscles. Richard was sedated and his arm and shoulder carefully bandaged but it would be a long time before he was well enough to be allowed out of bed. A number of days passed before we children were allowed to go in to see him, and when he was allowed out of bed, he had to learn to walk all over again. All of us took turns walking with him as he recuperated. Dick was a handsome baby with blond hair and as he grew, he and Charles resembled each other in their good looks and personality.

I have many wonderful memories of my childhood with all my brothers and sisters, but as the years passed and husbands and wives joined the family, work and careers took us in different directions. The family ranged from Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York and Philadelphia, Tucson and Mexico City, Florida and Kentucky and all points between.  Wars like WWII, Korea, and Vietnam came and went. One by one we grieved for lost family members as our numbers diminished. Age and health problems kept the few of us remaining isolated from each other with less and less contact as the months passed.

You can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call while in the hospital a few days after surgery for a broken hip, to hear Richards voice asking how I was! That phone call came when I was just beginning to realize the enormity of my accident and on the verge of feeling sorry for myself. I was even more surprised when Richard continued phoning me every evening and sharing his experience of having hip replacement, not once but three times!!!

Richard will never know how he kept my spirits up and how thankful I was to hear his voice encouraging and prompting me to do the rehabilitation exercises. I don't think he knew how I looked forward to his phone calls in the evening when hours drag the most between supper and bedtime. During those 4 weeks in the hospital, and three weeks in the rehab center, he was my only visitor except when my son was able to visit every 2 or 3 days. Even after I went home, he phoned several times a week to see how I was.

I call him Richard but in my fondest memories I think of him as Dick and wish I could find the words to let him know how much I love him and how grateful that he got bunched in with my siblings. He has enriched my life. His thoughtfulness when I need a kind word the most, has earned him a place in heaven with the angels.

bandage rolls