Tell me something I didn't know!

Dad's cancer surgery was unsuccessful - the cancer had already spread throughout his abdomen, and the doctor did not proceed. Chemotherapy had quickly been ruled out, too - leaving us with little other option than to move Dad to a hospice.

Plans had been made to visit a hospice, and I'd invited my aunt Mildred and my cousin Mike to go along with us on the visit. Mildred and I were very concerned, though, about my other aunt, Louise. Louise is 85 years old and getting very frail, both physically and mentally. We're concerned that she may be developing Alzheimer's, and we were very worried about how she was going to take the news that her brother was dying.

Dad had been transferred to CCU during the early morning hours on the day we were going to visit the hospice. We were all in the waiting room - my brother, sister-in-law, and my nephews; Mildred, her two daughters, Louise, my fiance Phillip, and myself. We hadn't mentioned hospice to Louise, and my cousin Tammy whispered to Mildred that we did need to tell her. So I decided to speak up.

Tammy had brought Louise in using a wheelchair as she can't move very well. I knelt down in front of her to tell her what was going on, tears streaming down my face.

"Aunt Louise, you know the other day you told me that they didn't get that cancer, and I told you they couldn't? Well, they don't have any treatment to offer, and suggested that we look into a hospice."

"Oh, honey, I knew that!" Louise very calmly replied. WHAT?? We were stunned. "Remember, I helped take care of Jim years ago, so I knew what I was seeing."

How comical - here we all were, worrying about how to tell her and scared for her reaction, and she had quietly figured it out on her own and was trying to comfort us!

The Porch Railing

Dad dropped out of high school at 14 to go to work, as his alcoholic father wasn't supporting the family. He always regretted his ninth-grade education, and we found numerous textbooks among his things after he died. He'd managed to teach himself algebra, calculus, and even electronics - amazing to me, since I had to have tutoring to pass algebra!

He worked as a delivery boy for a grocery store. In those days (around 1936-38), grocery stores routinely offered delivery service, and the grocery store owner provided a bicycle. One night, the grocery store owner's wife accused him of stealing some chewing gum. Dad never chewed gum, and he did have a temper! He quit on the spot - even though he then had to walk home.

Ruth asked him what he was going to do next. He told her, "I'm going to get up in the morning and go sit out on the front porch and prop my feet up on the railing, and I'm going to laugh at all the boys passing by on their way to work!"

Well, he had good intentions. Sure enough, the next morning, he sat on the front porch with his feet propped up on the rail. But he wasn't there very long. A car pulled up in the driveway, and a man got out and approached him.

"Are you Bill Moon?"

"I am," my dad replied.

"I hear you're a good bicycle delivery boy."

Again, my dad replied, "Yep, I sure am."

"Well, my name's Doc Barnett, and I've got a drugstore over on Bankhead, and I'm looking for a delivery boy. I've got a brand-new bicycle in the trunk of my car. Would you like to come work for me?"

Dad answered, "Sure. Just let me go tell my mother where I'm going to be." Ruth was flabbergasted!

Dad worked as the drugstore's delivery service until he was drafted. He held many jobs in his life, from delivery boy to cotton-mill doffer to traveling refrigeration serviceman to building engineer; even after he retired, he worked cutting grass at a golf course, building frames and trophies, and finally as a school crossing guard. Finding a job when he needed a new one seemed to be just about as easy for him as sitting on his front porch. I've often wondered exactly what his secret was!