January 4, 1987
Mother was living at the old Yocom Hospital and several humorous things happened while she was there. I went down almost every noon and evening. Ruth went mostly in the afternoons. Mrs. Yocom called me one day and said Mother was swearing something awful and could I come down. I never heard Mother swear in my life, but when I got there I couldn’t believe my ears. Really bad stuff. I said, “Jessie Mildred, do you know what you are saying?” She said, “Yes, and I know more words I haven’t used yet.” After checking a little, I found her mind had gone back to a day years before when carpenters were working on our house. Ladies Aid was meeting there that day and Mother had to go out and tell the men to stop the strong language. Somehow in her mind she had gone back to those days and was repeating what she had heard. We didn’t hear any more bad language.
About this time Mrs. Yocom told me Mother had taken to biting the nurses. This seemed a joke as she had no teeth. I checked into why she was doing this. Finally the scrubwoman solved the mystery. It was summertime and as the nurses went by her bed they would tickle her feet. As Mother could not use her arms or legs, biting was the only way to retaliate.
One summer day I went down and found the nurses tickled over something. I looked in on Mother and a nurse was holding a glass of cracked ice and Mother was drinking from a straw. I asked what was in the glass and the nurse said crème de menthe. Probably about a teaspoonful in the glass. I never knew Mother to taste anything alcoholic in my life, but she certainly was enjoying this. It was a hot day, and it probably tasted great. It gave everyone a good laugh.
About this time Mother tried to tell the nurses about something she wanted to eat. We all worked on it and finally discovered it was salt fish. Dr. Yocom was gone for two days and Dr. Gutch said to fix her some. She ate about as much as a half dollar, but she was satisfied. The same thing happened with a dill pickle.
On nice warm days they would take Mother out in a wheel chair that sort of lay down. Someone had been visiting her and left their baseball cap. Mother liked the cap and wouldn’t go out unless she could wear this long-billed cap.
Sometime earlier, when Mother was more sharp, I told her that I had seen Faye Widener Allen on the street that day. Mother said, “How could you, when I stayed at the Widener home during her funeral?” She just couldn’t believe it. We lived a short distance up the alley from Wideners and Mother, wanting to be neighborly, called to stay at the house during a funeral. This all came out a good thirty years later. Faye’s maiden name was Tacker and her folks had a bakery in competition to the Piper Baker. Mrs. Allen is out at the manor, and I have told her this story many times. Mother never would believe this mix-up on her part. It’s hard to understand that no one knew of this mix-up until it came up there at the hospital.
One day Mrs. Yocom called me to see if they could put a woman in Mother’s room for a couple of hours. I said fine with me as I had confidence in them. I asked what was wrong with the woman. She had had a bad cold, but it was past the point where she could pass it along. Mother asked me what was wrong with the lady. I jokingly said she was going to have a baby. Mother said nonsense, that she had a bad cold and if they had rubbed her chest with lard and turpentine, she would have been all right. The nurses laughed, but Dr. Yocom said she probably was right. His other comment was that old-timers were pretty sharp from experience. First they would lose one, and then save one, gaining knowledge all the while.
Dr. Yocom was a great lover of good horses, as was Mother. Mother thought the Budweiser Beer commercial with the beautiful horses was about the best. Dr. Yocom told me one of the things he always remembered about Mother was when she would go to Campbell’s Blacksmith Shop when they were shoeing a huge team of grey mules we owned. The men couldn’t do a thing with the mules unless Mother was there to steady them. Dr. Yocom saw this one time when he was having his riding horse shod. After Bud Campbell retired from horse shoeing he often stopped in the store to visit. Most every time, Mother’s role in helping with the mules would come up in our conversation.
George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself left at 2 p.m. in my car, staying mostly north of Derby and south of Woodburn. Checked several cemeteries and went by Last Chance Church. Last Sunday we saw few cars, while the Sunday before we saw cars and hunters galore. Red-tailed hawks were plentiful. We are beginning to see more cattle. Many herds of blooded cattle in excellent shape. Got back at 5:15 p.m.
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