We Are Blessed....Again!

I think that first semester of school was the hardest for both of us. It took us those first four months to get used to a totally new schedule and for Jim to get used to the rigors of studying, taking classroom notes, and doing projects after a four-year absence from school. But by February of 1955, the beginning of the new semester, I began to feel even more stressed. Being in that dark apartment all day and night alone was really getting to me, and I just fell apart every time that /#*! washer flooded the basement. And to top it all off, I was just not feeling well. I was throwing up every morning. You guessed it. I was pregnant! My first thought was, "That's the end of school. We have no insurance and barely enough money just to keep us housed and fed." But fortunately my second thought was, "That is just not going to happen. Quitting school is not an option. Somehow, we will figure it out."

I did have one option, a necessary option for me, and that was finding a new place to live. I knew that wouldn't be easy on our limited budget, but we at least had to try. After much searching we found an apartment located on the second floor of an older home. It had stairs on the outside of the house leading to the apartment, and being upstairs with lots of windows it was so light. I loved that. But there was one problem, the $85.00 a month was beyond our budget. As we were talking to the landlord their two Weimaraner dogs came up to us and began sniffing. Jeanie, who was fascinated by those two big dogs, walked right up to one of them, got nose to nose with it and said, "Woof, woof". That just melted the heart of the landlord who said, "We just have to have that little girl in our apartment. What can you afford to pay?" The price was lowered to $65.00 and we moved in. I loved that apartment. But there was one problem. Our previous two apartments had come furnished, and this one didn't. All the furniture we owned was a television set, the little desk I had bought Jim for Christmas, and a crib for Jeanie. Thanks to Grandma Knapp who gave us an old couch and a round oak table with claw legs and matching chairs, and to my Dad who gave us my mother's old bedroom set, we had furniture. I wish I still had that beautiful oak table. It would certainly be a collectible heirloom now. And we used that old bedroom set for the next fifteen or more years.

Another great thing about that apartment was that it was within walking distance of a grocery store AND a park with a lake, an aviary, and a carousel where I could take Jeanie and her new little sister, Debbie, who was born that July. I didn't even mind having to haul the children, groceries, and laundry up and down that long flight of stairs. And I was actually glad to get back to doing the laundry in an "old-fashioned" wringer washer located down a second flight of stairs in the basement. I knew that washer could not overflow and flood the basement.

If you're wondering how we managed to pay the bills for a new baby, again we knew that God was looking out for us. When we began looking for a doctor, we discovered that my mother's doctor who had treated her for over twenty years before her death had a son who was an OB-GYN. Because he also knew of my mother and because Jim was a full time student, he only charged us $50.00 for his services. The hospital also gave us a discount because Jim was and employee. I don't remember how much our bill was, but by comparison with hospital costs today it was very minimal. Although the customary hospital stay for childbirth was three days, the doctor let me come home in just one because he was aware of our circumstances. And that summer Jim was able to pick up a second part time job during school break supervising the delivery of telephone books in the Salt Lake area. Getting the supervisory job when he applied for a job delivering the books was another small miracle. It paid more. With this extra money we were able to pay off all the "baby" bills. And, he was able to keep that same summer job for the next three years.

We could really see the Lord's hand in our lives this year as we were blessed with a new little girl, Deborah, blessed with a a new bright apartment, blessed to be able to stay in school and still meet all our financial obligations, and best of all, blessed with a happier me. We were even able to afford a small Christmas tree that year. Nineteen fifty-five was indeed a special year when our testimonies really grew!

Our School Life Begins

It took us several months to get used to our new schedule, and we began to realize just what sacrifices we would have to make. For Jim, it was getting used to studying again, finding time to study, working hard until 11:00 at night when he was dead tired, and not being at home enough to watch the new things his little girl would do almost daily as she developed new skills. For me it was hardly ever seeing Jim except for a very short time in the afternoon between school and work, never having a "baby break" when Dad could take over for a while, and having to be alone all day and night in a very depressing apartment.

But perhaps one of the most unexpected and frustrating difficulties I had to face was the washing machine I had to use in our new apartment. I should have been thrilled to have use of one of the first automatic washers on the market...a Bendix front loading machine. Only the rich could afford one at this time, and our landlady was fairly wealthy. Her name was Evelyn Wood, the inventor of the first speed reading program which she had developed. She was an educator, very well known and much in demand to teach schools and organizations how to use her new method...at a fee, of course. She may have been very smart, but she was a lousy landlord (lady). Anyway, back to the washing machine. It was located in a section of the basement not occupied by our apartment and where we had a storage closet. So what was the problem? The problem was that occasionally the door of washer would come unlatched from the vibrating of the machine, and water would flood the basement. The first time it happened I thought that I must not have locked the door completely, and I was devastated. I swept the water from the flooded basement to the drain the best I could and opened all the basement windows to help dry things out. All the things I had stored in the closet were soaked, including some boxed wedding gifts, books, documents, and memorabilia that were important to me. I was scared to death what Sister Wood (she was a member of the Church) would say. Needless to say she was not happy. After this happened two or three more times I KNEW it wasn't my fault because I was so careful to make sure the door was locked securely. But I surely spent a lot of time crying as I mopped up the mess gain and again.

The first Christmas in that apartment was pretty bleak. We couldn't afford a Christmas tree nor decorations to trim one. Jeanie's only gift from Santa was a stuffed animal, Tramp, from Walt Disney's movie, "Lady and the Tramp". We spent some time with Grandma Knapp, Dad and Teun, and Jesse and Jean just to get us more in the holiday spirit. At least they had Christmas trees...and they all had gifts for Jeanie. But the thing that made this Christmas special and memorable to me was that I was able to surprise Jim with a small desk on which he could study. I had saved nickles and dimes from grocery money over the past six months, and with the influence of my dad on the furniture store owner who was a personal friend, I was able to get a great deal on the desk. As I look back now it was a pretty cheap (and I don't mean just in dollars), but at the time I thought it was pretty wonderful. That desk has since been used for many purposes, including a sewing table for me.

Jim made it through his first semester with reasonable grades considering he had taken mostly required (and not too interesting to him) subjects. And I had survived my first four months as a "widow" by taking long walks with Jeanie and talking to neighbors. We only had one car so I couldn't go anywhere. But even though at times I felt depressed and lonely, I tried to be "up" and positive when Jim came home. I wanted him to feel loved and supported in what he was doing. And by comparison he was sacrificing much more than me. He has since told me that if I had complained about our situation or lack of material things he would have quit school in an instant and gone to work to support us better. He also said that he could have easily used that as an excuse for him to quit when things were tough for him and he really wanted to give it all up. But he had too much pride to take the blame.

What kept us both going was the knowledge that an education would make a difference in what we could provide for our family in the future. And that was worth it!