2019 - Gratitude Month #7 - Medical Care

Gratitude day #7

Today I am grateful for good medical and dental care.

Really. I should be dead.

I was born to a woman in her 40s. In today's world, that doesn't seem like much. In 1955, it was. Mom developed high blood pressure that would never leave her; putting both her and me at risk.

I had normal childhood accidents. But, I wasn't often taken to the hospital or the emergency room.

However...in my adult life, I have become a hazard to my own self.

I will always be grateful for the good and tender and clean conditions surrounding me when each of our children were brought into the world. When the last one was delivered, there were some frantic moments that resulted in emergency surgery. We made it, when only a few years ago neither of us would have.

Our children had the opportunity for good care, and we kept on top of it. We wanted to give them the best start in life that we could.

Just over ten years ago, I nearly lost my life due to a bowel obstruction. I can't recall a time where my life was in such peril. I was rushed to Columbus for surgery that began at 11:30 pm, and lasted through the night. I was hospitalized for a month...then was released. Out for a week...then back in with a collapsed lung. Out again...then back in for pleurisy.

It was when I was reading my medical records that I realized what peril I had been in. It also made me realize how important prayer is - especially the prayers of others. I was so out of my head that I couldn't formulate the words to even say one. I had no choice but to depend on the prayers of others to say what I could not say.

It would take me nearly a year to recuperate.

I later learned that a distant cousin would die of the very same thing that I had. He dropped to the ground at a gas station, and they couldn't save him.

For some reason, I was saved. I will spend the remainder of my life figuring out why, and to show my gratitude to God for preserving my life.

My grandmother used to say when your foot, your tooth, or your ear hurts, you hurt everywhere...for, you just can't concentrate on anything when you have pain there.

She would know. She always went barefoot. She had one tooth. And, she couldn't hear very well.

How grateful I am that doctors can tell what is going on in my body without actually having to go in there. We live in a day of medical miracles. May I never forget that.

Ever.

Gratitude Day #13 - 2018 - Good Medical Care

Gratitude Day #13

Today I am grateful for good medical care, good doctors, and good medicines.

I have been fortunate. I was the first in my family to be born in a hospital, where my mother received the best of care. She said it was the easiest delivery she'd had.

I was able to have access to vaccinations, which my parents were so thankful for. They had lost siblings to whooping cough, and had seen polio close up. My dad said when his brother died of whooping cough, he had never heard such a sound in his life. He never wanted to hear it again as long as he lived.

They lost so many in their families from diabetes...and, they all died so young.

My own children had good and gentle care when they came into the world. We were in a clean environment, and every measure was taken to see they had a good start in life.

Even through childhood, whenever there was a mishap, they were quickly cleaned up, fixed up, and healed up.

Fast forward several years, where you will see a photo of me taken just about ten years ago. This was the closest I had ever come to death.

I had suffered a bowel obstruction in the spring, and it nearly took my life. I was hospitalized for a month, and was out of my head almost every day. After I was released, I had to be readmitted a week later for a collapsed lung. After recovering from that, I had to go back in again when I developed pleurisy in both lungs.

I lost so much weight that I almost didn't recognize myself when I pulled myself out of the hospital bed, walked five steps into the bathroom, put my hands on the sink, and looked in the mirror. I weighed 129 lbs. I was yellow. And, I had lost most of my hair.

The picture below was taken when Kerry had helped me take a shower, and to sit in a chair for about five minutes. I immediately had to go back and lay down, for those five minutes wore me out.

It took me a year to recuperate. There were times when Kerry asked me if I felt like going anywhere. Most of the time I didn't. But, one day I told him wanted to take our lawn chairs, some lunch, and little Mr. Eddie and just go sit under the pine trees at a nearby lake. We did. And, it was one of the most memorable days of my life.

I had a lot of time to think during that recuperation period. And, I decided some things. I decided that God had preserved my life for some reason, and that I was not going to waste one more day of my life on this earth. I had a debt of gratitude that I owed Him. Yes, it was the doctors and nurses who operated on me, cared for me, and pulled me through. But, it was Him who gave the the mind and the intellect to put their skills to good use -- on me.

So, as I sit here today, I believe it is nothing short of a miracle. I have lived through things that can and did take many of my ancestors and relatives away from this earth.

And, I am so grateful.

Gratitude Day #14 - Good Foods, Medicines, and Waters - 14 Nov 2017

Today I am grateful for good foods, waters, and medicines.

I love food. And, I've had plenty of it.

I am grateful that I live in a time that lets me sample food from all over the country and all over the world...without ever leaving Mansfield.

I grew up with plenty of southern cookin'. Mom's kitchen was a place where many gathered, and food would begin rolling out -- chicken, pork chops, rice and gravy, green beans, biscuits and apple butter, peach cobbler...all made from scratch with no recipes.

She made her own apple butter and ketchup. Strings of leatherbritches would be drying in the attic. And, hundreds of jars would be put up during the summer harvest to get us through the winter.

In my adult life, I married someone who grew up in southern California, so I was introduced to Mexican food. (Mom and dad weren't quite into Mexican food, and didn't know what to do with an avocado Kerry brought them.)

But, I've had the opportunity to travel across the country and various places in the world and taste of their cuisine. Jordan's wife is Filipino, so I've had some of their delicious dishes. And, I've had a new experience with Vietnamese food at Erik and Jason's.

I'm especially grateful that if I want to eat a good dinner, it doesn't have to come from something I've grown or something I've butchered. I can do it, and have done it. But, it's nice to not have to rely on my skills for that.

I'm grateful for good clean water. Our well produces the best water we've ever tasted from an underground river 110 feet under the surface. We can hardly stand bottled water or water in a restaurant.

And medicines, along with good medical care have extended my life and the life of my children on more than one occasion.

Our babies were born in good, clean hospitals, and were gently brought into this world by a good medical team -- not in a warn torn area by the side of the road.

My mishaps and illnesses have been quickly taken care of.

A condition that nearly took my life nine years ago was handled with careful surgery, and I was brought back from the brink. In years past, two cousins died from the same condition I had.

I had two very premature grandchildren born -- one at 27 weeks, the other at 28 weeks. They were so tiny I was afraid to hold them for fear of them slipping through my elbow. But, good medical care brought them into the thriving childhood they are experiencing now.

All I have to do is look through my family's history to see where relatives died from being burned by a pot of bean spilling on them, several dying from the 1918 flu epidemic, others from whooping cough and diptheria, juvenile diabetes, and a three-week old baby dying from syphilis.

I am so grateful that I live in modern times where the chances for living are higher than at any point in history; where food can be used as a vital medicine, and where clean and clear water can be bought or pumped up from our well to keep us hydrated.

I hope I never take these for granted; the fact that I can open the cupboard or refrigerator door and find basically anything I want, or pick it up at the store. And, may I always be grateful that just a few miles away are the doctors and hospital that can fix me, and save me.

Just where have you been?

What happened to my grandmother's aunt would never happen here.

I'm telling you, it would never happen here.

This is my line:

Peggy --> Ida --> Bertha --> Celia

This is Celia Moore Gearheart and her daughter, Bertha Gearheart Stevens.

Bertha is my mother's mother.

Celia had a sister named Cora, and she married Doctor William Campbell.

And, he walked away for sixteen years.

Or, maybe it was thirty years.

Several years ago, I came into possession of my mother's journals.  

She was not an educated woman, neither was she uneducated.

In one of them, she recounts the story of Doctor William Campbell.

I have left all of her spelling the same.

You can figure it out.

From the journal of Ida Stevens Clemens

About 1956

"I Ida Clemns have wrote all the Family History I can remember about my grand parents I hope I may be able to find more soe where.  My Grand mother come over in Ky from Ironton Lewarnce Ohio and mett my grand Father and that were married thay help to raise hir sister to children Thelma & Delmer Campbell there mother Cora Moore Campbell his Husband Will Dock Dr. Campbell.  he went away for 16 years before he come back no one nowed Where he went too he come back home and he & aunt Cora went to house keeping and thay lived at Limestone Carter till he Died he was away from home to see some friend of his Koon Moore and he fell of his horse and never did talk any more and he Died at my Grand Father house at Limeston carter Ky.  he was buried at my father Corb Stevens homestead cemetary at or near Lawton Carter Ky. and his wife cora was burred there too and his daughter Thalma Campbell Collins Johnson.  by Ida Stevens Clemens"From the journal of Ida Stevens Clemens

My mom often talked about this scenario, saying that Aunt Cora never asked a word about where he had been.  They just started up where they left off.

I'm telling you, that would not happen in this house.

There would be a lot of explaining to do, 

and if you aren't going to talk... then you're going to listen!

In some of mom's belongings, I ran across this article that she had saved, entitled,

"The Roving Doctor of the Hills"

by Arthur A. Moore

Cora's maiden name is Moore, so this man must be connected in some way.

Plus, a distant cousin of mine uploaded the article onto UsGenWeb.

The Roving Doctor of the Hills

The article states that he was gone for thirty years!

I know that a common mistake that we, as genealogists can be guilty of is something called

"presentism"

which is when we place today's present values 

to interpret situations of the past.

I can't help it in this case.

The article states that he went on practicing medicine all over the southern states, and even across Texas, into Mexico.  I don't know how believable all of the article is, but what I do know is

that he was gone an awful long time!

They had two boys, which Cora must have continued to raise, along with the help of her parents.

He didn't live long after returning home, for he fell off his horse after going to visit Koon Moore.  

He never regained consciousness, and died.

Thelma (daughter), William, and Cora Campbell

Brown Cemetery, Lawton, Carter Co., Kentucky

We never knew why he left, 

and we sure don't know why he came back.