From My Mother's Notes

 Phyllis Fricker's Memory Book

             



One time when we were living in Valpo we were sitting in the living room one evening when Mother said, "What's that noise?" We listened and could hear a thumping in the area of the Bay Window in the dining-room. Mother said, "Someone is stealing our fruit out of the basement." It sounded like someone was setting jars on the window-sill downstairs. Dad ran out onto the front porch and yelled back to Mother: "Mother, get me the gun!"

Mother, all excited yelled back, "What gun? We don't have a gun."

Dad was furious - his ploy hadn't worked.
The final discovery was that a cow had wandered over from an adjoining field and was rubbing its horns on the wood under the bay-window.

When we lived in Cadillac, Mother became pregnant. My parents were delighted and so was I. Unfortunately, the child, a little boy, was still-born. We were all so sad at this turn of events. I can't help but thing that this was eventually the cause of Mother's death, because she died years later of cancer of the womb.

 Mother's stepmother:

 Mabel Brock nee House

Mabel House

They lived in Galt when she died. She was ill for a long, long time. Eventually she went to the Dunlop Building in Toronto for radiation treatment. They operated on her about Easter-time and said that she was completely cured. By Christmas she was dead. I can Grandma House standing at the top of the stairs when they came to take her to the hosptial in the ambulance. Grandma was weeping and saying "Why does God have to take all of my children. I'm ready to go and he doesn't take me. All of her children except Gertie died before she did. It doesn't seem fair.

   


Percy Kenneth Brock | Valparaiso, Indiana | Cadillac, Grand Rapids & the Stock Market Crash | 
Mabel Evelyn House
 | Family jokes | Mabel passes | Mary Faulkner | Farm Life | 
The well-equiped kitchen
 | An old-fashioned wash day | Goose feather beds | "I 'ope he don't bust!" | 
In the good old Summertime
 | A daring escape | Black Diphtheria | Frank Faulkner | 
Aunt Clara & Uncle Bill
 | Aunt Hilda | 
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