Mary, age 16
I posted this for a few hours because October 2 is my mother’s
birthday, but I took it down because I thought some people would see it as just a sad story.
A comment from Sherri, however, showed me that the people who matter are the ones who can see
past the sadness to say, “ Wow, tough young
lady!!” Thanks, Sherri. For your children, who can be proud that they
are descendants of that ‘tough young lady’, I am posting the story once more.
And doesn’t Faith look remarkably like her beautiful
great-grandmother!
******
When my mother, Mary, was eight
years old her right leg was broken. She
tried to ease the pain by wrapping a pillow around it.
“What are you doing?” asked her
mother, Anna.
“My leg hurts,” said Mary. “I fell down.”
Anna was very upset. She and Mary’s father, John, talked to
friends about it who suggested taking Mary to a man who would put the leg back
in place if it had been displaced. This
man pulled Mary’s leg and made it worse.
Now she couldn’t walk at all.
On the way home, they met people
who suggested packing hot salt around the leg to ease the pain.
The next day, the doctor came and
looked at Mary. He didn’t say much but
told Anna to wrap Mary’s leg in towels that had been wrung out with hot
water. John went with the doctor to
Oakburn and Anna put hot towels on Mary’s leg.
In the evening, John came home
and took Mary to Mrs. Kushnier’s house.
There was no hospital because it had burned down. It cost $50.00 for the 12 weeks Mary had to
stay there, but John supplied all the food.
John brought Mrs. Kushnier live chickens which she kept and killed as
she needed them, and he paid a Mrs. Puyda for supplying milk.
After Mary was in the house for
three days, the two doctors, Dr. Yule and Dr. Burdell, put Mary on the dining
table which had been raised. They put
her under with ether before scraping her side which was distended with blood
and a small place on the left leg. A
scar was left in both places.
Four days later, Mary was put
under again with ether, and the doctors worked on the broken right leg for two
and a half hours. They used quicksilver
to join the bones. They had a hard time
bringing Mary to afterwards. They heated
irons and stove lids and put them under her.
When Mary came to she wanted cold
water. There wasn’t a nurse, but there
was a midwife and she knew Mary shouldn’t get cold water. The doctor was called and he said, “Give her
the cold water. She won’t live
anyway.” Mary went to sleep after
getting the cold water.
When Mary woke next, a lot of
people were sitting around her: the doctor, the midwife, the lady of the house,
and John. Mary felt better.
Anna came the next Sunday and
cried a lot so the doctor said she shouldn’t come for any more visits.
The doctors had left big openings
at the top and bottom of the leg which were suctioned morning and night for the
six weeks. This didn’t hurt.
There were boarders at this
house, too. Mary’s bed was in the living
room and she heard them talking about her.
Mary was always lying in bed
while Mrs. Kushnier was digging the garden.
One day, Mary got up and went outside for some poppy seeds. The next door neighbour saw Mary and ran for
Mrs. Kushnier. Mrs. Kushnier told Mary
not to get up any more. She would bring
her poppy seeds.
After six weeks had passed, Mary
got up and unlatched the door for the doctor.
He was very pleased to see her and gave permission for her to spend a
certain amount of time up each day.
Soon afterwards, the doctor came
and said it was time for Mary to go home.
“I have another little girl with a sore leg now,” he said. (This was Aunt Marion’s aunt.)
The hole the doctors made in her thigh healed but left a deep scar. Mom missed a whole year of school because of that broken
leg.
****
No one could resist one of Mom’s
Apple Pies; especially Bryan. Fortunately
for me, he also likes APPLE SQUARES which are much easier to make:
APPLE SQUARES
BASE
1 ¾ cups oatmeal
1 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
FILLING
3 - 4 apples, peeled and thinly
sliced (about 5 cups)
1 tbsp butter
¾ tsp cinnamon
·
Grease
a 9 inch square baking pan.
·
Prepare
base: Stir together oatmeal, flour,
baking soda, and salt. Beat butter together
with brown sugar. Stir in oatmeal
mixture. Press two-thirds of this into
the pan.
·
Start
oven preheating to 375.
·
Peel
and slice apples. Put these on top of
the oatmeal base.
·
Dot
with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
·
Top
with remaining oatmeal mixture.
·
Bake
one hour.
·
Serve
hot with ice cream. Thank you to
Chatelaine, June 1989.
*This is BEST on the first day. DO NOT cover it. You’ll lose the crispy texture of the
oatmeal topping.
Florence, Nellie, Mary
