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Helen's Valentine |
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| That $100 a month didn't go far after buying
wood and coal to heat that big farmhouse. Lots of times we were down to our
last 50 cents by the next payday. I remember the insurance agent who sold us
our first life insurance policy told us the premiums would be easy to pay,
all we needed to do was save the change we had accumulated each day. We
regarded him with some disbelief ... we were LIVING on that change. Johnny knew how to work hard, but after awhile on any job he would get restless and start looking elsewhere. So we moved to another farm, another job, milking 100 cows every day. We lived in a little house so poorly insulated that it snowed in under the door. I found a job in town to keep from freezing to death. Then John was approached by Standard Oil to work for them as a bulk agent. We had to go to LaCrosse for an interview and experienced our last crisis with THAT car. The night before we were to leave, the brakes froze on it, and believe it or not, it would it would not go into reverse gear. We had to call my long suffering dad, he had to come in the middle of the night to get us so we could get to Johnny's interview on time. He got the job, we sold the car and bought a bright red tank truck in which to deliver fuel. Well, actually, the bank paid for it. At that time we had only accumulated a few items of furniture, that practically useless car and had less than $50.00 cash. But Johnny had a job and a future and the bank believed in him. We didn't, however, have a place to live. His new job was in a town called Cadott, and there wasn't a place available. I had gotten a job as a receptionist for the town doctor and he allowed us to live temporarily in an apartment above the funeral parlor which he owned. As soon as we could, we bought a lot, borrowed some more money from the bank, hired two free lance carpenters for advice and some help, and built two rooms. We moved in at the first possible moment, with a lot of work left to be done. On the day they put the chimney in I found mortar in the bowl to my mixer. We lived in that house in Cadott for ten years, putting on an addition with the birth of each child. We became very involved in small town life - this was a town of 800 plus people. John was on the volunteer fire department, and in the Lion's Club. For several years he drove a school bus in addition to his job with Standard Oil |
He drove the basketball and football teams
to all the out of town games and enjoyed those young players so much. I
remember the doctor I worked for telling me that as much as John loved kids
we should have a family. We were well versed in waiting. We had waited four
years to get married, and we waited five years before we felt we were in a
position to have a family. Our daughter Jeanie was born in 1949 and our son
Michael was born in 1951. I was newly pregnant with our first child, it was the day before Christmas and we were going to drive our just-purchased car to my folks and tell them our big news at that time. Johnny left to put gas in the car. Shortly afterward I heard a car horn which didn't stop blasting. The next thing I knew, my husband ran into the kitchen, blood streaming down his face, and saying, "I hurt the car." He had stalled on an icy railroad crossing right next to our house and was hit by a lone engine. The car was picked up and thrown into a ditch. Besides the cut on his face, he had a broken collarbone and hand, but it was the car he was concerned about, of course. As well he might be, since the bank had loaned us the purchase price without requiring us to get insurance. Very sobering to me, however, was the headline in our local paper: Man escapes death at railroad crossing. With the birth of our son, if I hadn't know it before, I fully realized the caliber of the man I married. Our son was born with a severe form of spina bifida. We entered a completely new world, the world of the severely physically handicapped child. There was never a moment when I didn't feel John's strength, helping us all through many difficult moments. We were both determined to give our son as normal a childhood as we could and supported each other in this challenge. It wasn't until many years later that I learned that the stress of having a handicapped child quite often leads to a divorce. In our family it brought us closer together. Along with the bad times, there were the wonderful times, too. We had strong extended families and a host of good friends who all helped along the way. John was always a hands-on father. He could make formula, do nighttime feedings, change diapers and give baths. |
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