1/17/2015, dictated by Mom using Dragon Naturally Speaking

I'm Beth Winter telling the story of my life.

I was born in Canada in Rose town Saskatchewan.  We lived in Herschel Canada says as Saskatchewan and that's where I was about was born but they had to move they had to go to roast town Saskatchewan to have the birthing then but we lived in Herschel my father was a Presbyterian minister and my mother was from Muskegon Michigan my father was from Belfast Ireland the two of them met in Bible school in Chicago and then when the time came for them to settle down into a church my father did not have his American citizenship so they had to go to a country that his the Irish citizenship would fit in with the British citizenship so they went over to Canada and applied for a church in Canada and were sent to a very isolated area in Saskatchewan so that was the start of our life in about two years later I was born in Herschel of Saskatchewan that's where we were living but they had to go to roast home for my birthing 

When I was three years old living in Herschel I sister and I were fighting my sister Rachel whenever fighting over the scarf and we both were pulling at unbeknownst to to mother she did not know this was happening in she put the water for washing the Monday washing on the floor are just off the stove and about the same time my sister let go the scarf and I went into the hot water bottle first so it was some of very very fortunate to have had a doctor by phone that said will stop the train that's coming through the freight train and I was to be put on the board so they used the door of the house we lived in but me on Ellie on my front and then they build a frame quickly took over the my backside no close were to be removed as to go in the wet clothes I had on and then they put a buffalo robe over that in the couple of candles inside to try and keep me warm and we went on the freight train to roast town which was I say about 30 miles of a stop the freight train in Herschel and put me on and my father was with me and then went over to roast town I don't remember any of that in roast town I do remember laying on my tummy in the tent form over me and they just made shift that and with lights in it to keep me warm and then a was some fed by what I thought was a teapot and with everything that's always have liquids and in a teapot which it would make energizing liquids putting vegetables together and cooking them 

What was interesting from these some just about a year ago I was longer than that when we were back at males I went to the historical part and I had to send Scott with me and he said look what I found in what it was was a a spout on a flat kind of a dish with a cover on it and it was used 20 as what we would use straws and note for drinks and that triggered a memory for me so I imagine that that was something like what I used when I was on my tummy knew it was there for three months and the amazing result is that there was just the burn scars on my both size and another and that's it so I was fortunate there's a few drops of like scars down leg but nothing noticeable but all the time am not until I was a teenager did that areas to attend at all so I was pretty noticeable and I always wore swimsuits with the skirt on the swim skirt fortunately that was the style at the time of it we went back after all of this had happened the trained up was honored for what video did to stop to bring me there and it was quite a big story in the a part of Saskatchewan of which is also in the museum about the burn in the train stopping on my. 

We moved to Outlook in another town in Saskatchewan when I was five years old we spent a lot of time going with dad to country can communities they were a mixture of a Czechoslovakian and an Russian and Indian Indian country. I did double any Indian I'll have to edit this one as some of the churches that he serviced were called Ukrainian and I've had this conversation with somebody who has the knowledge of these the Ukrainian they are of the Russian Czechoslovakian area and and they are were very isolated separate they wanted to be stayed in their dress that they that was their normal wear and we just had a wonderful time with them one of the funny stories was my father being a minister was doing communion and we decide to my father and I decided that we were going to double up and fill communion cups for the next. Church stop and hit a big bump and we were wearing the grape juice both my dad and my we had we ended up having a real wine for that this was when one I was about 56 years old probably older than that of. New

Another try to put that happened we were there in the drought and again in the car going traveling with it and there were so many grasshoppers we had to put the window up for little Carl car we had a model T card at that time novel and then Miller we were up to a model be of we never had a model a but it's they were fascinating cars that go over anything but you bumped along. 

Another road experience for me was that my sister had became quite ill between the the time at a cat at roast town and they had my folks had to take her to a bigger city in the in the middle of gang think of the name at this moment but to I was given a taken to the reservation and the chief of the reservation was a probably close to 300 pounds 6 foot Indian woman by the name of Miranda and she took care of me and her husband was of skinny little white guy and out and they just were they we cooked out or they cooked out all with the pot hanging on the cross branches and beautiful all I remember is just being safe and writing on the buckboard with her whenever she went out to see the rest of her tribe and when not we went back to Canada and went back with my daughter Susan and a girlfriend Susan we went to the hospital there and were visiting was a little just a little hospital and that now or in cam sex Saskatchewan and I said had no idea about I didn't even think of Miranda but my daughter went to the museum midafternoon and then came back and got my cell got me and then my girlfriend Susan said you got to come see this and so she took us up to the ranger station and should they she didn't say anything she just said the turn right there mom and I was so I did I turned right there Florida Tom roofs or ceiling how was the picture that I have of Miranda and her husband they didn't even have a name on it so when I came in after my daughter had talked to them they were just amazed and he took the history of my experience and who this lady was they didn't even know she was the chief and that was a a sweet thing to to be remembered by so we go in I asked if she still living they said oh we don't know anything about her so we took the chance and went into the town can affect and I happen I asked them I went to one of the offices if found if they had any idea of what had happened to to Miranda and no I went to the hospital excuse me and from down the hall somebody said this voice came out is that my Betty and and I said is that Miranda and they said yes and she was the hundred and two blind but heard me heard my voice for the first time in will 15 years so we headed we had a wonderful time of reunion there. 

Here are next move up was it to Prince Albert as Saskatchewan will all of us kids were three of us now my sister Rachel and her brother met them and when we were getting settled in Prince Albert and dad moved there because he was asked to do the experiment of preaching to him over the radio to the Northwest territory and a lot and that's why we had to make the move. Us all of us kids did not really like to the idea that we were set in Princeton in cam sex and we were we were we didn't. I'm giggling okay.

Our our time in the Prince Albert was basically it was still further north and I remember her school class when our classrooms were all dark we went to school and in the dark we came home in the dark and we didn't see daylight unless on weekends for that the three hours that we had daylight it didn't seem to affect anybody they they close all the windows in the school so that we would be bothered with such a short some I think it now these days so we would insist on lights and school class but didn't seem to do any damage everybody was in the same environment but because of all of the the three of us ready to go off to further education on my folks decided to move down to Chicago but they didn't tell us that at the at first because dad went to Chicago to train for radio ministry and which meant that from Prince Albert he would do the radio don't want whatever facility they had to the Northwest territory and it was so successful and many of the stations they wanted him to come to so they could to know who he was the one sought one winter of the had a snowmobile now the snowmobiles in that time were like a hot put on long skis and they had a propeller airplane propeller on the back but inside they had a potbelly stove and the driver had it was connected to the motor but with the propeller and we did goes scooting off of the snow the solid ice and snow most of it was tundra that you had to do it in the winter or you couldn't get anywhere. I went back in the summer with the guide and went to some of the stations that dad had reached but dad felt like way he was way out of his realm he had no idea what service them well so he went down to Chicago of training radio station training so that he could be better serviced for their the remote areas 

I'm not sure if I mentioned that he was born and raised in Northern Ireland and do it now or so we had this Irish with the strong accent learning how to speak to all kinds of people out in the Northwest territory many of them have been there most of their life where lots had run away from something that they had done or abused and just set up cuts I in the north part of the north of Prince Albert when we went back there and he was still people were talking about him up especially at Lake Wasik assume which is north of Prince Albert and the because of my parents just the both of them were raised in the very well homes that were well kept and they had they had money to to work with and so they were not hurting and but being a preacher was very definitely new for out for them. 

Our family moved to a suburb of Chicago and I was just some finishing my high school so I was able to look towards the future that I would like but in the Prince Albert across the street from where we lived was the a Bible school and they would invite the three of us over there on Sunday nights for games and plays in movies and on one of the students there asked me what I wanted to do in a similar want to be a nurse and she said well I hope you can be and I hope you're near where I nursed you if you could go to Swedish covenant is one of the best schools in nursing what was not known at that point we did not know we were moving to Chicago and so therefore it was immediately start thinking of what the school's name was that she told me. And I started looking around but I was in a suburb of Chicago and then I remembered the word Swedish Welliver to Swedish hospitals in Chicago and then finally Swedish covenant

I remember that and now I went and applied and was able to get into the same school that she was talking about which was on on the north side of Chicago Californian foster corner and is still there and very well thought of and is one of the main hospitals on the north side of Chicago. When I was there it was considered one of the upper and kind of hospitals we were in a very strong Jewish community and of it that was really interesting with the clients that we had they were loving and caring and I was working in the emergency room 

I had just met my future husband Mel and he had been dating a lot of nurses because he didn't want to get serious with anyone but as it turned out we were very definitely together and that's what the we were working together sometimes in the hospital in the hospital or in the emergency room 

I remember one interesting part there I was a Sunday and it that ER emergency room is just loaded all the time with different accidents different things happening will see huge family came in and took a ball or waiting room and there was a one little baby not a toddler with the crying so I realize that's probably the patient and they were they hardly spoke English and they were all talking to me at once with them with the book about the baby in and all of those dynamics will I happen to be working with my husband Pete future husband in the ER he was making now paying for his eat medical school by working out ER in our hospital and nighttime and also on the weekends so I bring the of the little one into the ER the room surgical room and we immediately what we call mom made the baby and left them with the handout but you this way we can handle that we don't have the baby interrupting the sewing and we get we get a soda up this young baby toddler and we go out and everyone all the Jewish family there just crying and happy and joyful and then they said you what you thought them to be together and I can't do their accent I love them so there Jewish families are wonderful and I said well we are we just word became engaged well the room exploded they celebrated they dance they saying so 

we got to be well known there and then we had the Greek Orthodox church right across from our dormitory there was like a field in between us but they had these beautiful weddings with everybody dressed up so so beautiful and then we watch out the window at the dormitory will when everybody would have left the wedding the priests would come out and wave a white flag which means the that they had extra food so my roommate who is from Tokyo and my other best friend how we toddle over there to run over and just come back with out lot of food as well as eating it there and it was so interesting went back two years ago to Swedish covenant Hospital in the Orthodox church was there and and we were still waiting that Swedish covenant nurses just one of caveats of the type of area we were in. What when where I we realize that we were had fallen in love which it took me a while because I wasn't going to be tied down I thought a lot of Mal and I was in love with him but I didn't trust myself if that was the kind of what they called the blind date for all my classmates blind date is when you don't know the person you're going out with but so many of my classmates came from other communities outside of Chicago so their boyfriends would come in and so the boyfriend to bring a friend to help them drive and that's how I got involved in all of this and Mike said nothing wrong with that you know a free meal out of the dormitory and so what's wrong with but that the lighting I was known for the the renter nurtured the rent a girlfriend but then them when I met Malik that was if I didn't want anymore and he said the same thing happened to him but right about that time I was transferred to children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and when I got back from that three months of spam he was taken to Passavant hospital which is next to the low Children's Hospital but we weren't there at the same time and then when he got back from that I was shipped to Cook County Hospital for my sake psychiatric training which is something you do another thing to talk about but not necessarily in my memoirs. 

When I got back from all of this in and engaged it was stated that we weren't supposed to be dating on the doctors and this by this time I was we were committed to each other so I was the Dean of nursing school talk to me about it and was not angry but she said you broke the rules and I said yes and you know that's kind of a a strange rule and see what we just didn't want to be a cop part of Martin nurses falling in love with that with the doctor well this a few of us that have and there's a few of us that are going to be anyway I had that and they didn't do anything they didn't discover me or anything but I was also in surgical nurse in the in the hospital in my senior year and I was in charge of the surgery at the nighttime which of course was the sum of the busiest times and we had to be ready for just about anything coming into surgery which are instruments had to be sterilized they were ready but they had be sterilized and it took a lot of responsibility and a lot of emergencies and not one of the doctors there said that he was moving to Hawaii and he wanted me to be his his nurse in Hawaii and at that time it was before Mal and I were it in the serious relationship so then I had to tell him well sorry this I think I'm getting I'm falling in love and is as well I want to meet this he took me out for breakfast that morning insisted that Mel be there to believe met with the Dr. Rober call never forget him if he was the surgeon that nobody wanted to work with because he was just Rowley gnarly and not yelling well one of the times he did that to me and surgery and I was the main the nurse holding all equipment and so forth and I told him I said if you can talk to me nice nicely would be a lot easier for me to get things together and after that I was he was putting my hands in Alaska for breakfast listed this very wonderful doctor is scared all the nurses we were 

I took Mal home to meet the family and it was that or what to it was after he gave me the ring I had been home a couple of times with the with me to have the church and the people the church had gotten to know him a little bit and then when I went back I went back together he wanted to ask my father for it by hand to be with him and my father was only when there my mother was in Muskegon visiting so we go in there and melts as Rev. Tate want to marry your your daughter and I would like a blessing so you would widget with this Irish accent pieces and I'll have to think about that a little bit and I pulled my hand from behind me and I said I'd like to show you my diamond in my but the father is Huck and I'm a little late to be told this and I'm not been for Val was having a hard time getting around this wild Irishman but we got his blessing in the and that was one of the happy times for us we when we graduated Mal we were set separated Mal and I were separated we were not married we went to he went to Des Moines Iowa on his internship and I was just finishing my my nursing school so we he had to go off in them and I was left in Chicago.

I need I'm going to back up a little bit on my my family history and that is when we were in Prince Albert we are time in Prince Albert was the knot is warm with the people because with the dad being on the radio ministry we didn't have a church to make the connection but we did a lot of things as a family one the things I remember specifically was we like to go up to Lake Lusk assume now it's the four-lane paved but it was mutton gravel of the other when I was there for one day when the dad was on the incident Saskatoon at a meeting mother decided that we were going to go on a picnic. As we prepared for the picnic It was an old model B car and but we had to crank it and so my mother went to a neighbor down the street and asked if he would crank the car up and we were going on picnic and so we did and we went down the road toward some Lusk assume that we didn't go that far was another smaller like their lakes all over there all over that area so we went in there run stop the car and I said to mom this is a are going to get started again without I'll figure that out so we went swimming and had a picnic and had a wonderful time and it was about for the afternoon mind you would didn't get dark till midnight put it was time for us to turn around and go home. Mother disappeared into the woods and about 40 minutes later she comes out with this very delightful Indian man and he cranks her car we get in the car and we would go back home I said to Mama who was that mansion I don't know the first one I found one I went into the woods and he was happy to do that for us. 

It gives you kind of an idea of what gypsies are family was and both mother and father came from very well-to-do homes mother had never cooked in her life until she married my father and my father hadn't raised a hand in a in Ireland he was one of those some wild young man in the story is a story goes I hear and am on the runner runner and then friend went to meet brother he was one of the well-known racers chariots of fire is the book is written about him I can to get his name right now but to he is the the runner that the book whole book was written about and my father and then another man that ended up to start the linen factory in the North Ireland and the state went decided that they were going to have fun that night there was a revival meeting in the Newton arts so they went into disturb the revival meeting and all four of them came out as Christians and that's when my dad decided to go into the ministry and he knew nothing about what he was doing he got on the boat and got landed in New York was thrown into jail because his papers were right he was in the jail with the drug addict for doing the he got Lucy he got out of New York as soon as he possibly could his spray his brother was uncle was the chauffeur and not New York but came back to Ireland after being there for about 20 years but he gave my father some chances there are some people to reach and if he was needed it while he got out of New York as quick as he possibly could and that then went to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago who was the school that the gentleman that was preaching when they went into the tent so that's worth he came to Moody and my mother came from Muskegon Michigan to Moody Bible is to it and that's for the two of them met but the pictures I see in the albums they had a lot of fun the other gang of friends and that was the end they were married there but had to move to Canada that's how they got to Canada from the states and from Arlington this week my mother was so Swedish.

I have the in my talking had forgotten some of the travels from Canada that we made be having mother in Muskegon Michigan she wanted to be around her family for for some time to so that she would go about every other year herself and then dad would batch it with us kids wherever we were at one the most wonderful times we had was that the by cam sex and it's the one that we spent most of our time when we were in the camp tech area we be by not by rent a cabin for two weeks to months of which one month that was out there 

the whole time and met the other month the mother and dad would commute back and forth to camp tech at one point we had a tornado go through through the town of can sac which was very unusual and then came out to the lake and the lake was the it was pretty scary because kids were all alone and we were so divided by their parents they were in town we were at the lake it sounded like a freight train coming through our our cabins area but amazingly it did not tear any of the cabins up some got to damage but nothing bad but did it hit a pond right next to where our cabin was in tour tour out about 4 miles of the huge trees and the eight was devastating to the beaver population 

I went when I went back without my friends about 10 years ago it was wonderful to see the beaver pond was in full action you just watch their working little straws they have some time to travel that way and not just right right above the water and the strong their mouth and that's what were their breathing and you might not believe it but you have to see it to see to know that it really happened but they created a whole little village in the torn up trees and melt sweet to see but the of my mother was just had no idea what happened to us if we were fine but we were and that match lake was out magic for all of us the folks could let's go and as I said before come dad made the mistake of saying come when it's dark what course is midnight when the start that was rescinded pretty quickly we would travel the others here's the problem about every five years to Muskegon Michigan to be with the Swedish family my mom's family and we have to come down through the from Canada go through the deal passport I was the only one of my dad were the only ones that had to be declared because we were not born born in United States Rachel my sister was born the United States I was born in in Canada and his brother and was not old enough to make have to do any claiming of age 

we would come down to Muskegon Michigan and spend at least two months there on Lake Michigan and that's another beautiful part of my my memory when we were able and I think it was about 13 then we work the grouper stands or we would people put their order in through the stand where they are parked in the car and we had where rollerskates and carry the roof. All the orders I happen to be had lots of experience on rollerskates on sidewalks so I didn't have too much trouble my sister rollerskating of I don't how did I could never get rollerskates now but you'd look at on their door and sometimes you got a tip sometimes you didn't but that we always had some kind of music and they were people that just had quartets or whatever at the and they were good and they would would sing so was a very busy group your stand and the last time I went to Muskegon it wasn't there anymore is more industrial but the time mom from before it was still there and I was in now in Chicago so that was a lot of fun to find that we would come down from Canada loaded up in the model B Ford and with all of sleeping gear food to eat on the road across the border that would take some time because we had to declare ourselves my father and I but all it was always there's always somebody that would to help take care of us in a course with that car going so far there's a lot of people having to repair the car but one thing I remember when we got into United States were put some along the soul car and the people are passing out some pointing and we couldn't understand but then we realize what would gypsies we look like but we weren't the gypsies and they knew that but it was just a strange sight to see on the road especially when we had our feet out the door window because it was hot but it was always fun I've never had any experience that would look hard to somebody else but we always laughed and giggled and went on her way out we would do cross at time to Lake Michigan at Lake Michigan will became a crossed over into US we we headed towards the east and there was the great ship that went back and forth and it was a transport ship for cars and people and would take us to the north of Muskegon and then we would just go down to drive down off the boat and don't don't Muskegon 

I went back once with the might our two boys when they were small and I cross that way to Muskegon and it was scary because they had the open decks the little the next going back my mother came back with me to Milwaukee and got us off the boat and then she went back to Muskegon on the boat but we I'm sure we look like gypsies we were in there were not many motels then we have to go they'd save room for rent in in homes often times it was don't buy down the basement by the furnace they have to put us all up and in those environments but were just there to sleep so wasn't like it was a burden of all and we as they say we felt like we were the gypsies going on the road what I learned through all my life is set at you don't have to feel burdened you don't have to feel that you're not well-off if you can keep the community around you which was my family and we could have fun together and we did because it we were only playmates we were in remote areas that we didn't have anybody else to play with we always had a different kind of things that we did one time at the match lake I my brother and I decided that we were going to paddle over to the Mystic Lake which is next-door that was all fine and good but it was a bad storm and so we finally got over to him in this that can pull the boat up at the Southwark and then walked back in the dark in the north woods every tree was the bear we were scared spiritless and my parents didn't even miss us and we were we didn't get home until close to midnight because of it was dark and we were on the road but we weren't sure if we were on the right road though it away we still lived and it was fun doing all of that never felt in danger.


My experience at Cook County Hospital as a student was awesome contagious diseases were a challenge it was mainly polio and in Cook County Hospital is the only hospital in this in Chicago that could take these type of of diseases that were highly transportable and contagious and when I went to Cook County Hospital. Adcock at Cook County Hospital April they put me in the of the polio department and the other choices were the students for polio were deep we were separated and when we were separated we slept in different dormitories were given the high protein diets and an assistant to have seven hours of sleep. 

There was no polio vaccine at the time so therefore you are very susceptible to getting visits the disease and that's why they did the isolation in the care the cases from every walk of life came into this section there was no to set discernment of with her you were a millionaire or a street person all had to come to this unit and so that we add them from all areas of nine and I had 10 iron lungs it up by myself in use and they that means that they were totally paralyzed in their lungs and couldn't do breathe on their own so that the iron lung as we called it worked off of of a motor and it would to discern how much pressure they need to put we had to dial it in and also watch and then with the way the iron lung works when the when the pressure comes on they can talk and then when that goes up they can't so there was a lot of you can imagine the anxiety especially in the young patients that we would have the ice first saw them with the first space we went to work was in the admittance but that was admittance for all affect infections and polio of course had the highest intake because that was rampant all over you the United States being that there was no vaccine for it at that time so I would have a dentist in one I had a dentist and one chair out in one container and then I had a young girl very feisty in and another one they were beside each other but they wouldn't know who the other one was but the ones the gentleman was a dentist in within one week we had to his wife and two children in iron lungs and it was a very sad 90% of these folks did not make it of the they were too sick but when I did admissions into this so department I had so many come in with the same diagnosis or same symptoms which was very high temperatures general malaise hurt all over and were were read feverishly read and within 24 hours they would be in an iron lung and with the iron lung there were four swing bands which means that the patient had done well enough in the iron lung and were switched to the swing bed to see if they could breathe on their own and that means the swing bed would go down and then swing up and the pressure of the room air would go against their chance to but it wasn't there wasn't an instrument on their chest it was just the the room air and the day the interesting thing about this was I was working one night in the iron lung and Chicago had one of the worst snow on rainstorms thunderstorms in Chicago to have a a good storm my electricity went out so I was at the point I had to make a decision who did I save as I was alone with 10 iron lungs and three sweet or four swing beds swing beds would make it but I had to choose the to run between four I couldn't I knew I could do that and that's what I chose is young girl I chose the dentist and I don't remember the other two but the young girl did not want to live and she just that every time I push down on my by pump at the head of the iron lung I had to do it manually she said I don't want don't save me I don't want don't don't and then the within about a five minutes seemed like an hour the whole hospital sent staff to me because they knew the predicament I was in and there they all were saved on electricity had a backup in the came in about the time the people were beginning to pump so it was a nightmare that I have often dreamed about but I think I'm over all of that on the Dr. that the dentist that I had was able to to get out of the iron lung and he went to a private hospital but today I understand that he didn't get too much damage done the book the girl that I was pumping she just said let me die let me die but an interesting thing happened when I and I'm jumping ahead right now when we had moved to Mount city where I had lived 60 years may not know quite that yeah almost on their I had television on and I we just come to Mount city our house wasn't quite completely finished but time we moved in here and we had one little television and I was ironing and watching the television and probably some of you would remember the Donahue show and I was watching I was in the afternoon in the interview all different kinds of people and he had this young lady who was paralyzed from her neck down but was totally independent work except for the help getting into a wheelchair and into bed and I looked at her not the only goodness and it was my young lady that I was pumping in the saving and didn't want to live and she was telling the same story on television well I they Donahue had a phone number and I can went and called because I was just overwhelmed seeing her and the answer I got is that we cannot share any information and you cannot give us any and that was the end of that but I do know that she made it but what she did was have everything was done by blowing into a tube in her wheelchair and is one of the first ones that they ever developed and then somebody would put her into bed at night and get her up in the morning and then from then on she was she worked on her cell she did have a pressure jacket which would help her or her breathe but it was and it had some power to it is what I gather because they were talking in that way and I know we had some of clients that we were able to do that with you but it was the a life changing experience for me I I then went to the Swedish covenant Hospital had done up had the call system that they had been telling about another patient I had and and so some people took advantage of it and work on the calling thing the bell all the time and we had this that man that was very young angry for being in there and very very Jewish and he didn't want to be in in the hospital so he would ring the bell he just yell for nurse and are up and down the hall which was very does trouble with the VM other patients that were around so they gave me this if you can calm down take care of him he's yours to take care of and I could hear my got off the elevator once I had start taking care of him and my maiden name is Tate so I could hear them calling Ms. Tate where are you get down here Ms. Tate I can I need to and then he learned my name so then it was Beth Joy Beth Joy and her but who in the world is that how it got that I do not know he must've found paid somebody to find out what my middle name was because on the name tag it was just Ms. Tate finally we got him of doing what he needed to do in this and so he was taken care of in one day and he said done how old are you and I told him and he said he would get married and I said well yeah I am I happen to have a wonderful man in my life at that time I didn't have an engagement ring and he said Hawkeye can help you there I said I don't have enough money but I think I'm going be looking for wedding dress and he says I can that's where I can help you like going to do this is my card you see it you just take it down to this figure store and I don't get the names in down on Michigan Avenue and you walk in there and you just hand that card to some of these one of my staff civil you you do you work there if he kinda left this is no I own that I own the whole store so I'm on my day off I dressed up as good as I could had shoes on and bobby socks on the on the that's what you wore those time and I went to the down to the elevated bus and went to the store is huge it feels a whole block on Michigan Avenue which goes back to blocks to the next area in the on the square block and I get got to the door and not I had his card and they were immediately tried to send me down to the basement where all the secondhand clothes were and so then I handed the car and I said no I think you need to see this card well it was a bowing on so sorry and we grabbed my arm typically carried me over to another area which had an escalator that was carpeted and I came up and as I was we were going up I looked up at the top of the escalator there were five ladies waiting for me very nervous at the top of the elevator and they sat me down with my bobby socks and loafers and paraded Doug down one after the other and they didn't he told me I had whatever my choice that someone he wanted me to help so I finally picked and very elegant white satin and dress with a long train in it had about to I would say tat you know hundred pearl buttons up the back and on the on the arms and the they guided me to to the mirror they brought shoes that they wanted me to wear and it was so I felt like Cinderella it was one the most beautiful dresses is totally satin and very simple with lace lace around the neck and the wrists and we still have a tie still have it is getting more beautiful because it the satin turns to caramel light caramel and my daughter Susan Ward at her wedding and it still readied in looking good and that's only been great cleaned once but it he told me when I came back to the hospital is the send out what what gown did you have an eye described it and he says what do you know that's one of my favorite garb counts to us to do you know all localities at all yes that was part of my ownership I make sure that they got the right kind and he said it's the most elegant gown I've ever troublesome so that was. 

The church was a small church and none it had it held may be 100 people with he was building it up but it hadn't gotten to the point that they needed a new church will they did because he have two services any and each one is be packed with with people so we decided to have our wedding on Friday afternoon and open open invitation to the congregation and then probably also my medical staff my teachers and I was the first one to be married that close to the door to the school of nursing so the director and all of staff came to the wedding Wellesley if filled the upstairs and downstairs of the the church and we just we almost always could do is laugh because that we had almost walked come behind each other down the aisle and my father walked me down and in all his dignity and then know we were of the wedding happened and we Mal and I had planned or he had planned a ten-day honeymoon and I did not know her room going and but he had it all written out on his mind and we went South and we woke up with snow we had beautiful fall weather for the wedding and we went back in towards Chicago to take the big highway down South and our car was covered with snow the next morning but we got of we had the car cleaned off and put it up on the lift just the because they thought it might as well be checked and Rice fell out of the bottom of the car and we were teased all honeymoon half and it they gave us a hard time at on her way home from mom our honeymoon and we went down to the South and I'm not sure wall art where all we went but wasn't down to the coast it was somewhere down in Louisiana then on we headed home and we were just coming onto that the road that would take us to Downers Grove around Chicago and this trucker had run out of gas so he flagged us down and asked us if we could help him. 

And so I said yes Mal said yes and we took went put them in the car with us and went back about 20 miles to the closest the gas station. And filled the mud the tank up or not the time but I gave him enough gas and then we went on her way and ended up the running out of gas on the same road so we went to have somebody take us back to a phone and I phoned it was Saturday afternoon you didn't bother dad on Saturdays because he was doing his sermon so I have called him and I said to him hi dad and he says well what are you doing and I said we ran out of gas and I told him where we were in his response to his Irish humor was Hawk girly you're married now it's not my responsibility but of course he came in and helped us.



We moved to Des Moines Iowa after we finished on their honeymoon after honeymoon Mal had already been there and done I had my first experience of being a married young lady and working in the hospital we had done why wasn't working at the hospital the time when we moved to do Rochester because the Malik got a fellowship for four years there are first apartment was a block from from the clinic and it was a kind of a partial basement and we didn't it was in an old house I have to go back care of it wasn't that one we were in them Des Moines malice and medical training there and it was the year you take before you went into your specialty we were in an old house and burn the attic the third floor and we had done our bed was a Murphy bed which you young people probably don't know what that is. 

A Murphy bed is a the whole bed that folds into the wall and then it looks like just a wall when you when you have that it takes up less space and into the bathroom the toilet was in the other end of the attic he had a really basically back a.m. and not duck your head so he didn't hit it but we didn't care rear newly married married and were having a great time getting to know on living together and doing different to jobs at the hospital will I was the on the the floor that general floor which is like the surgical and medical both our bid we had a care I had a great job staff that I work with on a very playful and was sort of like I'm a married but just a newly married lady – and they were had a lot of fun with me they played lots of tricks on me and so I had to learn to do some back at them too but most of the time I had with it the gang and there were five of us we would take we go out to swimming in another in a lake and it was a good time to have Friedman in our life as well as working malice and Jean and came to visit and she was a lady that took care of her parents all of her life and never married but then went back to and went to medical school graduated from there Robert when she was so in her 50s and she was a dear dear lady she came into her apartment and she was looked around and looked around it she says okay where's the bed and gave her, it was good I wanted to be a great said I want to be a great amped all of Mal's family lived near Des Moines so we had lots of places to go to when we had time off dead winter sisters Margaret and she also took care of grandparents and her brother uncle Bill and they ran the farm and they never run neither one of them ever were married and they both had fun teasing me as a greenhorn when my Moran intelligent give questions was why is that windmill behind the house why do you ask well it's a decoration it should be out front well roars of laughter and that story went around the back country that of Iowa and it was so great environment for us to to be with each other week get away and do things with the at the farm then the once a month there were sorry I lost my train there. 

Our move was to Rochester was after our year in Nam in Des Moines and the the we had the on apartment that was close to the the hospital close to the clinic and they damn would have a we could walk I could walk to work and I worked in the in the clinic I was so had a lot of fun with the people that I worked with and it wasn't long before they started to play tricks on me I worked in the admissions and it walk in clinic and all of the fellows is what they call the residence which is the name of a play tricks on me example for one I would be putting patients in a room for them to see they would do as I walked by they would spray my leg with the numbing spray I would and a course that was cold and ice and then they would be giggling back in the room and then I was transferred to the urology department in the new clinic building and worked for four urologists that they were that was getting their patients ready to be seen became pregnant and worked until I was six months pregnant I was also going to junior college getting credited in math history English working toward a bachelor's degree I also had applied for my American citizenship a week after our first son was born my mother was with me and we went to St. Paul to be sworn in for me to be a citizen of the United States I was Canadian and that to be a citizen of the United States and the soda you had to go to school so I went to I think at least three months of the class with the a lot of foreign people that had escaped their troubles in Europe and in so and I was now pregnant I couldn't work anymore so I'd that went after my citizenship window we got through we had to go to St. Paul to be sworn in will Malcolm had just been born and my mother was there to be with me so she went with me to the to St. Paul and I I wish that everybody would have the experience I had is for me it was okay I'll get my citizenship but all the people I went to school with head had been oppressed and destroyed in in their homes in Europe and so they were they escaped in on the oppression under the oppression and that there were getting the citizenship for that the tears and the joy in that all haul was overwhelming and the judge himself said I have never experienced this and I feel very proud to be the one to give you your citizenship in the now they was crying everybody was just so excited to get it so I really respect and honor my citizenship after after that a little bit later I became pregnant with with Scott and it was so they were nine months apart so was like having twins one was mobile but when the other one wasn't the way we were all living in forward called Quonset huts it males which was provided by the clinic we had to pay a small amount of rent but they were half up they were whole Quonset and then there was a half a Quonset that was so a garage and so there be to Quonset that in the middle of it would be two garages and we had no money and there were at least 60 of us they are 60 families so about the end of the month we would down just put together all of our food and have a block party as they call them now to to help us all make it through the month all the another thing that I did with it some friends was to have the one day out of the month we would get dressed up and nobly our kids went to a nursery to be taken care of and we would go out and visit in a car one of the girls had a car and it was convertible and we go out and do something go to another town for lunch or whatever

One of our ventures was some we went to male wood which is the original mail home and there was a Mrs. Mayo that lived there and she was elderly at think she was the life to the youngest of the males but I I'm not sure of them and we we just got out of our convertible and sat in on the chair that was out there I thought it was a bus bench a bus stop but at the mail would lose the whole area that the called mail would relay this lady came down our elderly lady and she said and what you lovely ladies doing out here today. We talked to her and said to we were going would just take from the mail clinic our husbands are male students and we each take one day a month to have do something different and leave her children in the care of a caretaker while she she wasn't enamored with that and she said what he to come next next the next time you're coming out the next month and have tea with me and I will expect you and think it was at 2 o'clock well we had nobody yet who she was so we all fiddle would be delighted we were tickled about it so when we did go we realize that the lady that took our coats and before we went in said I don't know if you realize that what you're getting she never has visitors and she is a Mrs. Mayo well then we were quite overwhelmed but we had the best time and she was so humble and so sweet she she was excited about our story to she she said will what are we doing what you doing we told what we were doing just taking some breather time and that debt that really she said that the smartest thing you ever did.

It was the first time we had to be any money and in our pocket and this was due to the fact that we Mal was accepted at mail@the Ellsworth Air Force Base he had skipped all the basic all of the times when he could've been listed and they were asking them to because he wanted to get his education.1st so we felt he owed the Air Force back sometime so he signed up for the Air Force it was and then this is the first time either one of us had any money in our pockets but it but we thoroughly enjoyed it with that we could eat red things with by things and we did have the facility to live in. 

Our units were two-story and they were a whole role on non-one-sided men across the grassy knoll there was another role of housing and this was for the Captains the kernels had private brick houses and the other one of people blowups were in no much less of a unit well I got to meet all these Air Force wife. That they have a whole new lifestyle that I had never experienced when their husbands were flying or or working on the plane but mainly it was the B-52s they huge plays and their husbands would be gone for 22 weeks sometimes three weeks in the air because they be refueled in a little over the world flying but then they would come back to Ellsworth and and have a month off before they had to go fly again they'd have to work in the offices are on the planes so we are and Mel's hours for of daily but he came home one night after work one night I think a month and films of regular hours we never had that but on the base there was always this wonderful equipment we could rent with the drip tents boats heaters motors just anything you can think up and we were in the Black Hills so any free time we had in December we went camping and of also at that time number burger three boy our son Bruce was born and was born at the base while they don't have a lot of of facilities for four Air Force wives but I was the in the upper echelon at the kernel level so I got special special treat but. 

I was I didn't like it because I was low made of is all by myself and so I'm I pick up the my son Bruce in the end a hit on it into the meat regular room where everybody else was eating and having a good time and that Tom that was a great environment but before Bruce was born of our son Scott became ill and I needed help but the mail couldn't he was on call he was in the the hot rumor of the Col. the one that all of the information on where every plane is was in the end because he was the head of the hospital he was in the in meetings there and could not be reached. 

We had to about three or four bachelor Air Force guys that spend a lot of time at our house just out to get away from the rest of the base and so I put a call in for for mountain that I needed help and so he couldn't come but he said the two of the guys over there well they thought I was in labor and just wanted them to see Scott so the minute they walked in the door they I had my suitcase that I was eminently dead to the liver I had there they grabbed the suitcase grabbed me and started walking me back to the other car that they came in and. 

I told him don't know they need to come in the house because Scott was sick and they filled in here and I just yelled at them to please stop what you are you have your baby now I said no but a sick child back at the apartment of the very kindly walked me back there and picked up my sick child and we all headed over to to the hospital it with that all turned out it was just a of virus in and he was fine but then numb the next the next call was to get me over there to the hospital and have this baby. 

Not being aware of the hospital protocol they had me in an isolated area which was lonely I wanted to be with the rest the gay so I that's what I did I just picked the baby went had meals with them after we got back my mother was with me the whole time when I got back to the out of the hospital and we were we had a warning it was the Suez Canal episode and they immediately put the barbed wire around the whole base I don't how they got it up so fast but I could not go in ML cannot come out and we just the we had already planned what we would do if a situation like this would happen. 

I took Kyle my mother and my father and the two boys and we went up into the hills to this cabin that was owned and run by an older lady and she told what we wanted and she said you leave the baby with me because by this time I melted dried-up I was so concerned about where my husband was and she said and you just settle down and I'll take care of the baby I've had babies that delivered babies so I know what I'm doing so that's what we did. 

So are our baby our newborn baby was handed over to this lady in and within two days Mal was gay he came and he I've ever been so glad to see him walking up in uniform from from the road and then everything went went fine the canal Suez Canal was resolved and so we could go back to our base but it will eat it made me realize how close we were to the situation we came home the next the weekend and they had no idea of anybody around the mouth city only I would hurt there was some trouble well we knew differently were involved with the differently what part of the other thing we did in from the base they had all camping equipment available in so we could do the we printed the Equipment hardly paid a dime for things maybe five dollars for a tent and Bruce was just a a newborn but we went off to one of the big lakes tech: was and found a little corner had Bruce in the buggy and we all him and weak camp about 10 days we would dove put the vessel vests are waterproof S on the buggy and take the center of the buggy out and put have Bruce and that the other boys were with their fishing poles it would just would have a lot of fun doing the fishing and the people combines a what's in there and throw Noah and they didn't understand what we were saying but we didn't want them to really know what was a baby in there on to the doctor friends that we had we continue to keep in contact with up until about the last four years the pilots would be gone for that long then they come back and for two weeks and then they would go on another venture but when they are went on them there flights the wives didn't do a thing they did wash the dishes it into close if they were amazing they were able to set up a house when they moved in within hours and and in four hours they were set up meal cooked and ready to go can do that but when their husbands were flying they spent most of their time that my house and I was trying to keep supper going meals going for Mal though it was a little bit of a confusion for me a new moment new wife and and not take care of my house.

Well I did take care of the house but it was a it was a chore when it was fun having all these friends of Leah we were close to South Dakota to mouth city being in them in no South Dakota so anytime we had a long time away we could do come home new

What we did when we would come back here was the we decided that this is where we were going to move to they were short of the doctors here and we were available is so weak what we did is sleep started to build our home while we were still in the Air Force which meant that the contractor had to know what we were thinking and what were doing and we'd come back about every two weeks to see what was happening and. 

It was amazing project of getting this house built and not our friend Bryce Richards was the contractor and he stood his ground on what he knew we wanted other people come and say what maybe should do this you should do that but we he stuck to the contract the way we did it and by the time overthrew the Air Force we could come in now stay in the house it was pretty rough we started living our at Mal's parents but when you have three little ones is that didn't work real well so we just moved and camped over in this house that we are still in the motel I have to go back to the base because when I we were at the base the people that I lived with their dear friends but they have their whole different attitude your friend while you're there and the sale of the after that we didn't have hardly any contact.

Felt the South Dakota compared to Chicago in Rochester so we came home often repeating myself new new sentence. 

When the wind up my mouth was growing up that they had a housekeeper – nanny by the name of Bella and she was from Scotland a wonderful lady and she she adored mouth so they were buddies forever and may she left say that Mal was her shadow and spent a lot of time with her Bella married a Scotsman Duncan and so they she was out at the ranch out by Copenhagen Montana just little just a little drop in the room the map but they had a huge ranch and were very good caretakers and of the Landon of the ranch they were mainly horse but I remember mainly horse people and I was had never been out here that out to them Evan would be for Mal and I were married I'm backtracking a little bit I came out once I was engage in a new mouth city knew I was marrying the most eligible men in the world but some loved at some hated it but they I came out specifically to spend time with his man's parents. 

During that time is when I got to know Bella she was now married and out in the country but that meant that was one place that Mal wanted me to see desperately so his parents took me out to the ranch which is out by Cole Hagan and I the people there were wonderful and they were having a round up and they were they were rounding up horses and so I I've seen horses you know when Lincoln Park in Chicago sway backs that hardly move in these vital horses were just being rounded up and they had they had them all pretty close to the corral when the the main the main horse decided each other I don't want to go there and so took off so that all the rest of them took off but they got rounded up again but what I noticed what I really didn't notice I was sitting on the fence the gates and loving what I was a then I one of the round up people came over and said you realize you're all by yourself out here and that's fine I'm just having a good time uses but did you look at the house and I did I looked over there and all the women were looking out the big window in the kitchen at me he said you just that did something have never been done before I said all my goodness is a don't worry we will rough hands out here are enjoying it as a just a where you are. 

Which is what I did and I thought now I have to go in and talk with Bella so I went in and if there was silence and Bella Bella said to the whole all these Scots women this is my daughter I never had and now I want you to treat her with respect well I could've walked on water after that coming from Ms. Bella but we had so much fun out there and it was a wonderful spot for me to to be introduced to Montana we spent a lot of time with them when we were here working with Mal got the job we go out often as we could and then Noah became that dealt Bella and Duncan were had to sell the ranch because they just couldn't handle the whole the whole thing Bella was a McRae and done and that was another Scott's family out I say Scots Scottish is not the right word to use for the Scotsman and the Scots will is the proper way to address them well anyway that was some of the these P2 people I dearly loved in and they love me back when Bella became ill Duncan pottery and and never left never went back to the ranch so that they laced stage of Linda here at the house but Bella was in the hospital and then finally Duncan decided that he would sleep here but he spent almost of his days over there and he was making thermos of tea and so I thought well that's nice or having tea over there it was not tea it was scotch and so a couple of times he said welcome Beth would you go get me to eat and I knew what I was going to go clear said that yes I would be happy to select come home and find a stash fill up the slope thermos again and go back over there. 

That's it was part of the wonderful relationship that I I love so dearly well when the Abella passed Duncan that was with us for a bit and then became more work more needy and help and I had a three and four children by then and so am of you Hebert went into the restroom which was time for that to happen and I visited him on a lot of times bringing his little thermos along with me. 

New chapter new with the window Duncan passed away he let he'd left me of could look at some of money not a lot but a nice gift and then it was made out to me so I decided that I wanted to do a building another getaway home out of the Pine Hills in the ranch ads and we had looked at the spot and talked about it a building a cave in the cliff so that it was time for that to happen and it came became true and a new paragraph of the time at the Pine Hills and the building of the cave so to speak became the interest of all of my city first of all we had to have the ground graded the cliff whole cliff taken down with sides on the sides on each side and but this was like a erode between the sides and the head of big greater come in and he went one way and when another way and he said I wanted to get some insights up on this dirt I'm disturbed I don't want to coming down on you so yeah I told him that we would do so than the next person out was the the cement people and they were enthralled with this and with the help of all the boys they designed that the walls how far they would go and then there is the dirt had to and the open space for the big fireplace my role in all of this was to pick up rocks from the cliff that they roll down the hill to be back in as the fireplace rocks which was a quite a feat and that was a daily up-and-down for me good way to stay in shape. 

They got there the sites up in the dirt back in and then comes the next the big hurdle and that's the roof while I was down atop the lumber company Randall lumber company looking at some different things on the mentioned that how would I put a roof on and Mr. Randall says well I have something for you he said that just came in but it's down the knob in the Black Hills you have to bring it from Black Hills here and then we can we can put it on your roof and there were beams I huge beams I can't tell you the width of them but it took for men to list them off the truck and what they Randall lumber did they took the the truck and loaded with their things we paid for somebody to go out to the the where this man was with all of these beams pick that up they brought it back to where Randall's truck was then put it on top of of his equipment of what he had gotten and it was I think it was Walt wallboard that he got. 

Once you come back to my city I went down to the Randall lumber company and Mr. Randall said had put them on his truck and he said had to be the case and he said bring me back to truck his son Malcolm bravely said that he thought he could back it up front to the cave so he had a block distance to back the truck up against the cliff and drop off and the cliff on the other side and it was the full width of the the truck and he said I have one chance in that kid got back all the way up and against the the wall that of the dirt that was supposed to go on. 

We all were involved in that in we had four big guys helping us I one was just out of the their discharge from the Air Force another one was just out of the was working on a ranch and was there and I don't know who the other two were one was Malcolm and I think the other one was Scott yes and that they all took those beams in the hearts one was the first one which they slid across and then they could put the other beams on that and they just roll him down the frame wallet of the cement wall that we had at there were four very tired young man when he got through. 

So they said the well you're going to have to take the truck back mom will also I had this big 18 wheeler with big long tray behind me and the keys were handed to me that okay we could do this and not I had that little stretch before got to the highway to practice curing up-and-down that truck work but I don't how I did it was I did nowhere was going with the gears but whatever I did it install and it and it went and I got it back to Randall lumber in one piece and then I Mr. Randall said what you want me to drive your home and I said no I'll call my husband he'll be he can pick me up so I was fine until I heard his voice and then I started to you pick me up where are you finally told where was it was just the emotions of all of the day and driving the big trucks. 

So all of framing was then done and the boys that built this beautiful fire him fireplace of all the stone steps was knocked out of the wall so that's where all my my labor was as I said and going up and down good exercise but some hard on the hard on the body we have had so many wonderful things happen at the cave with we go put it all back together carpeted the floor once we had the the fireplace build both ends our sliding glass doors so you can't see the cave you have to know what you're looking for but time is wide open on both ends with sliding glass doors on one end we have our our bed which is can look out in the Valley from the bed and hear the coyotes see the coyotes and see the sky and. 

We've also had some fun fun things happen at the cave especially the wedding of my brother Tim to Susan and it was of a great a great party and a great wedding. Another person that and that has time Matt had time at our place in and played brought his guitar played was that George Winston and he came a very good friend because he conscious here he had spent our time here with his parents who father was in the Air Force I didn't know him at that time but when he came back to play const I got to know him and he got to know us very well and spent a lot of time he bought land out of the Pine Hills but he didn't do it was in a log cabin he hasn't used it that much but would come over with his guitar and and create music what's not to like about that my understanding is that his music that the Pines was the he thought of it and heard it and wrote music for and that's what I would been told I I can't verify that.

When we settled in in our house here after the Air Force that's when I was ahead of boat of nausea and guess what our first daughter and only daughter was born was conceived and born later but this time we had a house full of boys they all gathered after school here are three boys always brought in friends so there was my always had fresh cookies made so this house was rock and a roll in from the the day we moved in and we have piano and an orchid by them in with penis from kids that played and so we have concerts of their own doing not necessarily in the music but ones that they created one would play the tune and the other would respond with a with the other parts of music for them they the house was always full and so when Susan was born they all heard they all got the message that she was born and so they went up and down Main Street saying it's a girl to girl with girl and nobody else would know what they were talking about all leave the youth that spent time at our house know exactly what was was happening so open kids were always had people over here and on weekends Friday was an open unopened night. 

We would get them the opportunity to do whatever they wanted to do in play games a cook in the kitchen play music and oftentimes we would wake up in the morning with hot donuts waiting for us and may just finish them our finish making them often times so our children would done art to which the what are you trying to say there is set on on Sundays and I'm kinda messed up hair sends the kids would done get breakfast for us so we could do have breakfast in bed and not baby outside her door with breakfast and we wake up and they bring it into us they have all taken different paths in their lives and one of the biggest things that we did together and spent all of our vacation doing this was backpacking

Home what do you say about a learning how to backpack it's it's quite a training I had nobody trained me so I did what what I learned from trial and error but one of things we always did was make a bucket of Corp.

I'll explain what Corp. is it so that the peanuts to start with and then mixture of hope some walnuts raisins and M&Ms and that would be all mixed in a big bowl bucket and everybody could do their own amount they wanted in their plastic bags Ziploc bags I tell you I don't know when Ziploc bags were for were developed but they were our salvation and our backpacking. The other room thing that was on the table that they could load up in their own packing or candy bars and they were allowed to take as many candy bars as they thought they wanted but they had to carry them in the sure if I put in the Corp. M&Ms they were necessity for making the Corp. good in all of this is that energy food that we could eat on the trail as we were walking. 

The one other article that we had to do was make him jerky and when we did that we get a dryer and I sliced of roast a raw raw meat for a long time and it would soak in a sauce of the quite sure all egregious I use but there was there was wine and jerky flavoring and I think God soy sauce and you just let the meat meet certain that in the refrigerator for up to a week all the sliced meat is marinated in that and then know you moved it over to the dryer which I had I bought 12 shelves for dryer and you drive the jerky I have to open the garage door because it would become really strong and the whole neighborhood would do drool at the smell the jerky they knew we were getting ready for backpacking. 

On the other thing we did to get ready for backpacking was to get her packs and put rocks in them and then march around the town some people would know exactly what we were doing and what were getting ready for nobody was really happily happy to carry rocks in your pack but it got our shoulders ready and we hit we had fun doing and I think gives shaft as the kids but it wasn't all that bad and we'd be in the mountains for 10 days so you would pack your pack according to lead to what to you wanted to be eating but will we did have was some of the food was all dried and was all made I also did the dried meat for for the meals and the meals were a meal a day and the rest was the nipples on bread and made a special brand that was so solid and so and cheese lots cheese and we go on their in our pack with their sleeping bags and also book close we needed and it was the everybody's decision on what they wanted to carry with them and in the of the other combs or brushes or whatever toothbrushes were all loaded by each of the the people that the that came in I would think kids but sometimes we had guess it went backpacking with us. 

Our arrival hikes were mainly done in around the red Lodge area the mission mountains and brand granite peak and are often times are car was in red Lodge or over the next day entrance which was near the Gibbs working it it was the the first experience was very difficult to start with but once you learn how to carry your pack get your rest and and not go too far we never went more than 5 miles and I and very seldom we went that much but we always had a goal of the lake and then would stay at the lake we had attempt to set up none of us ever set the tent up Elizabeth the weather was inclement we slept out under the stars and that was the best way any of us wanted to do.. 

Once you get to use the climate the cold of the other thing that you didn't have when you are at night didn't have mosquitoes they may be down by the marshy areas in the lake but very few of those which made it a lot nicer but we carried a lot of sunscreen and mosquito's stuff and we go in and come out where our car was parked but we be at the top of the mountains doing your are walkabouts and we did go from one leg to another Lake and and that's how we planned it so we be on the plateaus and all of basically all omission mountain plateaus the granite plateaus and all those leaks I never thought I would follow love with the bully did my Mrs. the body can't do that anymore are sends a head and the and Susan have all taken different paths in their lives but they're all all happy and to be with us when they can but making their own their mark on this world and were very proud of them Malcolm the went up the career of medicine and trained at males as well and and then know went into internal medicine and is is out in which in Washington as as a hematologist oncologist is his profession of our son Bruce Everson Scott the next one in line has the been trained in the end construction as well as some graduated with from the as a professional baker is a better name for that but it slipped my mind at this moment is a culinary trained as well so delighted to be around has many different ideas on and brings us good food when he is here he's been living in them Bozeman with his daughter matter with his daughter Madison and Michael some and Darcy his wife just lately this year which would be 2014 going into 15 he's been a model city managing and owning now are three, apartment complexes where there are four units in each complex as well as taking care of us and helping us with the things we need which are many and so he and his son Michael are in the apartment downstairs and then they go back and forth to Bozeman to see each other at least once a month it's been wonderful for us and hopefully it's working for them. 

Michaels is enjoying going to school here and is just a block away at Lincoln school will be going to junior high next year sore house is alive and an interesting with the with the everybody coming and going numb.   

Bruce's family live lives in them Salt Lake and Bruce's as been the top bar IBM engineer and is also doing a lot of other inventive of things for her for the the company.   He's got a beautiful home with the whole two-story glass on one side looking down at Salt Lake and in all amounts around Salt Lake then that's where his office is right there in front of all those windows.   Helen is with him and she is so neural Apple apologist and she is on head of the department in Salt Lake now as well as doing the surgical procedures so they are delighted delightful to be around.

Susan is married to Brad page who is from Australia specifically you Mina New South Wales and it is right above Sydney you go north I think I'm on the train and a commuter train and there on the summer homes they live in the summer homes area when the four Sydney where they would come to beat the heat in them the early 19th century so it's a very old community and younger people are coming in and in buying the land and building new houses on it but the Susan and Brad.   Her two children McKay Lee who is now going to the University in Sydney and is majoring in international law and Cheyenne is a junior in high school and they live in a home that they built on them on the cliff and they have a it would basically like a clubhouse with a lovely and fun place to be living at because you look out and you have the the ocean in front of you hear the waves but you're a bum on the cliff.   Her husband Brad is a fireman and there is the that was the question because can get to work except type of thing but they're just the five minutes down the hill and then the five to the fire hall or to the beach so that's not a that's a bad thing.  We have a little summer cabin attached to them which they call that of the nanny room and that's where we it's a one room and with the bathroom and we have our own private area which they use when were not there so it works both ways.   Susan is the been trained in them in psychology and she is also a counselor and that's what she does.

I'm a looking forward to more of my life and it's not an exciting life with all the people we have around us. 

The one unknown is how well Mal is going to become an he's my partner for 62 years.   I hope and pray we will have some more years that we can be together.    in the meantime with the wonderful children have rallied around us and have been here Malcolm from Seattle and that they're coming back with his wife Kim.   Scott who is he staying here now helping us and then goes home once about once a month and I may be repeating myself here but how grateful we are to have here to be helper protector and he is Michael with him who's in sixth grade at Lincoln school then we have a my bus my sidekick.   Bruce's been with me from the beginning of this of his father's problems and Helen has came back with him this this last trip.   She is wonderful woman with the brilliant mind and enjoys cooking which we all are and are enjoying and many different foods that have been set by her her heritage and her Russian background.   So as it's been great I know I probably gained pounds but it is really helps and I just come home from the hospital and kinda crash and visit with the family.  

I just want to finish with this and maybe at some point will be adding more but this is my life and it's been so exciting and not a dull moment and nothing that I regret I'm just grateful for the people that love Mal and I and keep us going so goodbye for now.....