In the early spring of 1897 there appeared in the neighborhood of Cal and Jane Moore a man who said he was looking for work. He was temporarily living in the home of a relative close by. He was about the age of 32. The mild mannered and not very aggressive man was rather short and slightly built with all the appearance of not being very well and not really suited for farm work but here he was. The family where the man lived had two good looking marriageable daughters so the news of his arrival was not kept a secret from the young people of the neighborhood. Mom heard about the new arrival and was curious but she made no effort to meet him At the age of 15 she was not very romantically inclined and anyway her literary activities and farm work kept her busy. Not long after the news reached the Moores in the middle of March the new arrival made a visit to the Moore farm on an errand for his relative and each one introduced themselves. Mom, however, had seen the stranger coming down the lane before the rest of the family and she noticed some differences from her farmer cousins much older than she.
The stranger sat erect on the seat and looked straight ahead. He held the reins to the horses with one rein in each hand and kept the horses at one steady gait. Quite a sight to see. When the visit was over the stranger assumed the same position in the buggy and handled the horses in the same manner as when he came.
One other thing Mom noticed was that the stranger was very careful when he got out of the buggy and when he got back in as if something was hurting him. Then when he walked he was very deliberate with each step. Sometimes a slight wince was seen in his face as if there was “pain somewhere”. Mom pondered the scene of the visit and reviewed it many times in her mind and wondered, and the visit scene would not go away. The visits of the stranger became more frequent and a friendship developed between the 15 year old girl and a man more than twice her age. Finally in June 1898 the stranger told Mom he was going to a hospital in Chicago in July for a serious operation.
Mom always did have the natural ability to give more of herself and have more left over than most people had to start with. In this case she was a good listener. The writer has a letter Mom addressed to the Hospital for her friend.
8 comments:
Tom I had read that letter many times, but I had no idea of the rest of the story. Thanks for sharing.
Well, it kind of brings real life to these names which are now chiseled in granite. There are many interesting and uplifting stories out there. We owe a great debt of gratitude to H. Ray for his work and stories.
In this story, all of us and our families are literally "The Rest of the Story".
Very True
I have not heard this story before. Is it in one of the manuscripts that I should have helpd Dad edit? As mentioned before, I am sorry that I never got to know my Dad.
Well, yes, it is in his collection of writings which I now have. But I couldn't say for sure if it was one he asked you to edit. He had a lot of manuscripts and it is a slow process to scan and OCR them into the computer. He started many manuscripts. He and I would have made a great team had I had the time. Interest, ability and time are all critical factors.
Tom, thanks for taking the time to make this story available to all of the family. You have told it to me many times plus you let me read it. As Paul Harvey said, "now you know the rest of the story". Those were good days and we are glad that the stories were recorded for the future generations.
Dad was born in 1900 and Mom in 1901 so I assume this story is about Dad's parents, not about Dad and Mom as I thought at first.
Nice story!
Howard, I am guessing that Grandma Walker told your father about this event. It is written from her perspective.
Note what your Dad said about his mother: "Mom always did have the natural ability to give more of herself and have more left over than most people had to start with." That can be said about a lot of Walkers today. It is part of our heritage.
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