Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Wonderful Break


How is it that the mundane—which on first inclination we'd tend to throw away—often turns out to contain, buried, the very clue we are seeking in our research?

Continuing a letter written in the midst of a hospitalization in May, 1962, from retired teacher, Lummie Davis Moore, to her baby brother (in his adult life, known as Jack R. Davis), we can glean quite a few details of her life. From the introduction posted yesterday, it is clear that Lummie had lots of friends and expected to be out and about, lively and engaged in a full life—that, despite her age approaching seventy six years by this point.

In the midst of all the medical—and potential lawsuit—details, the second page of this letter was surprisingly stocked with all sorts of positive comments on how “wonderful” everyone was in treating Lummie.

Best of all for me, though: in the midst of the letter, Lummie slipped in the very detail I had been seeking. There it was, though just a fragment of a sentence awash in a sea of words: a mention of her daughter, Sarah Martha Moore McKinnon. Now that I’ve found that little snippet, oh, how I wish Lummie had included a full date on the letter.

As she, herself, said, though, I suppose “it didn’t make any difference.” Somewhere, though still unnamed, there is a McKinnon daughter whom I can now claim as a new second cousin—whether or not I ever get to meet her.

I will never forget when Dr. McWilliams (after x ray was hurriedly made) come along side of stretcher introduced me to the Surgeon Dr. Tuverson + said Well it’s a fracture alright and we are taking you into surgery just as quickly as we can get you ready. It will be about 7 this evening—we will have to call your family—Who do you have? I protested over having them call Sarah Martha because that day she brought home from Baltimore hospital her new baby girl. But it didn’t make any difference. They called her any way. Lots of friends were with me and between 10 and eleven I was in my room and it was all over—In the meantime I had one of my friends call my lawyer Mr. Divelbess—and I was in hospital there for a couple of weeks with 4 doctors and Jack they + the hospital, together with friends, have been wonderful, simply the “Red Carpet Treatment.” Then they transferred me to this hospital for therapy + rehabilitation, and it’s simply wonderful here, nurses everywhere you look, wonder[ful] food and everything—Private Room here—friends bring me everything. 104 get well cards so far—

8 comments:

  1. 104 cards -- Lummie must have been well-loved!

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    1. Lummie certainly had a wide circle of friends--interesting, when you consider she moved to Phoenix upon retirement, I'm sure. I don't know exactly when the couple arrived there, but obviously it was before Wallace died there in 1952. Makes me wonder if she had already known that several of their friends had retired there, also.

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  2. Ah, so Sarah Martha had a daughter!! And yes, 104 cards is a lot of love!!

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    1. Yes! Reading that the first time left me almost breathless!

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  3. http://hoover.mcdaniel.edu/archives/Catalog/cat1947.pdf mentions Sarah Martha (as a "native" of Tela, Honduras). Unfortunately, no photos.

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    1. I'm not sure whether Tela was mentioned because the family may have moved from Puerto Cortes to Tela toward the end of Wallace Moore's tenure there...or whether that was just a natural outcome of trying to avoid that "huh?" response when speaking with people who don't know the obscure suburb you came from, but might recognize the name of a nearby city. Kinda like me saying I live near San Francisco...or came from New York...

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  4. Ah... a photo!!!!!!!

    http://hoover.mcdaniel.edu/archives/Yearbooks/Yearbook1947.pdf

    PDF Page 65.

    "SARAH MARTHA MOORE-Long-stemmed, blue-eyed Sarah ("please don't call me Sadie!"). . personality plus. . remembered for her droll joke about the three men under the umbrella ... on artful artlessness . plans to do graduote work in psychology, much to the relief of the chemistry department."

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    1. Did you happen to notice the previous page in this pdf? I believe the six photographs are laid out in exact same order as the names on the page you reference--which would mean there is a second photo of Sarah Martha!

      Love the characterization, "...much to the relief of the chemistry department." I bet there are a bunch of stories embedded in these comments!

      Thanks so much for finding all this, Iggy!

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