1979 Family Letter -June 11

Monday --

June 11, 1979

Dearest Family -

Well we are little earlier this week in writing but it may be short.  The big news is that Mary Virginia finally is feeling better -- after going to Clinton Memorial Hospital and having two operations in two days and the cause of her trouble is or was a ruptured appendix.  The first operation was Saturday morning and then they just found an abscess with about a pint of pus in it and after much discussion and bleeding (on her part) they went back in surgery for a couple of hours and they found the bad appendix and more abscesses and more drainage so she should soon begin to feel better.  She is on IVs and has at least four pints of blood given to her by some generous donor and as soon as they remove the catheter and let her have some liquid other than intravenously she will be much happier.

John all this brings back memories of the time that you were in the hospital with only me around for consolation.  I'm really thankful that Dad is here and Roberta got home Thursday evening and has been a great help too.  Now it is John that is in Europe (Roberta was there in '72 when John was feeling so low with typhoid and Serena was in South America).  Catherine is further this time and Serena is half way there, across country.

The doctor has suggested that we give up going to Oregon at least next week but Dad called and found that we could cancel two or three days before hand so he is his usual super-optimistic self.  At least we will not be driving to Chicago on the 20th. and we'll let you know more definitely about the rest of the trip.  Dad has reservations to be in Madison for the American Law Institute ABA course beginning June 25 and the rest is hanging in mid air.  He had said that he would be glad to pick you up the following Saturday in DeKalb, Serena but that depends on whether your friend is there among other things.

John, we have gotten several cards from you and others have mentioned getting cards from you too.  Roberta thought she was talking to Carol Wise the other day until she mentioned that she got a card  from you with a picture which reminded you of their home - (castle) and we told her it was Georgialia Hannah.  She came out to the car to see Mary Va after one of our trips to the doctor and Jim Wise that she remembers the first time she ever came to New Vienna - April 3, 1977, I believe as we had gone to the Golden Lamb for our anniversary celebration and then Dad rushed home for a special meeting with our future minister.  Dad invited them home for supper and I never had so little in the house to fix so quickly!!

Roberta has been going over every morning to stay with Mary Va. during the day while I come home after being there all night, do a few things at home and perhaps take a nap and then go back for another 15 hours or so.

It is now TUESDAY AFTERNOON and evidently Dad had other things on his mind last night and wasn't about -- Dad is now reading this for the first time.  After getting back from the hospital yesterday evening I went down to Wells for a few minutes and the next thing you know it is 11 P.M. which is more than bed time if I expect to have any ZIP the next morning.  In the rubber and die cast areas we have been working two 12 hour shifts to build up stock as we are going to do some rearranging in July to make it more efficient.  The first week of July is vacation time, but with the end of the fiscal year there is always plenty of work in the office to be done.

Read in the News-Journal tonight about a 60-year old man who is going to pedal a bike from Forida to Maine, plans to average better than a 100 Miles a day, so there is hope for me.  The article said earlier he had rode a bike from Florence, Oregon to Mass.  [It was just less than 10 years later that Dad (at age 63) made his cross-country bike trip from San Diego to Jacksonville FL in April-May 1989]

Our cherries are turning red and the birds are there to grab them, they are nice to mince on when working in the garden.  It is light till 9 P.M. so really have no excuse not to have a better garden. 

Love,

All the Family