The Woman with Woman’s Digest

54

ting logs. Inside these dead logs, fire
would smolder for hours. Putting it
out was hard work.

We were a tired and smoke-
smudged family when we finally
went home!

But the next day we suggested an-
other strenuous afternoon jaunt to
Father and he accepted with alacrity.
This entailed a two mile dog-trot
across the island of Campobello, a
swim across a long and narrow fresh
water lake, a dip in the freezing
waters of the Bay of Fundy, then a
reversal of this process until we
reached home.

The mail and newspapers arrived
just before we did and, as usual, Fa-
ther made a grab for them. Mother
could order us to change into dry
clothes but she couldn’t stop Fa-
ther’s insatiable curiosity to get the
latest news as quickly as possible.

An hour or so later, we sat down
for supper. About halfway through
the meal, Father very quietly an-
nounced that he thought he had a
slight attack of lumbago; his back
ached and he felt feverish. He
thought he’d better excuse himself
and go up to bed. There was no fuss.

The next morning he was worse.
It was easy to see that Mother was
worried. But when I would carry a
tray into Father’s room, the same
cheerful smile would greet me, and
even a wisecrack.

A hush fell over the house as Fa-
ther’s temperature rose. One day he
got out of bed to go across the hall
to the bathroom. One of his legs

dragged. Mother had house-guests,
both adult and children. She achieved
a little quiet by sending us all on a
camping trip for a few days. When
we returned, we learned that “special-
ists” were arriving from Boston, that
it was suspected Father either had
spinal meningitis or poliomyelitis.

After the specialists had examined
Father, I learned there was to be a
consultation in my room. So I hid in
my clothes closet and listened anx-
iously, and almost entirely without
comprehension, because their medi-
cal lingo was beyond me. But I did
absorb the fact that they all were
pretty well convinced it was polio. *

Mother told us not to talk about
polio, as so many people were scared
of it. But rumor travels fast; we ,
found that many of our friends had
been told by their friends not to go
near the Roosevelt children as “they
might have polio.”

Mother told us firmly to believe the
doctors who told her that polio rarely
hit more than one member of a fam- *
ily, though other members of the
family might have a minor type of <
polio which would only manifest it- ■
self through a stomach upset, a cold
or “flu” attack.

Those few weeks at Campobello
were like a nightmare. I knew
Mother was terribly busy and wor- '
ried; she didn’t have time to explain
much to her brood of children, yet
I was always full of questions and •
I’m sure was a nuisance.

A trained nurse arrived to help
(Continued on page IlBbi