Grandma Hansen's History

I have been for the last few summers (it is long, and I tend to get distracted) typing Grandma Hansen's life history. Grandma was a great storyteller. I think because she told her stories a lot, she was able to remember much of her life as she began writing it down in her later years. I think on this blog I will record some of the stories I find particularly interesting as I run across them. Here is one I typed the other day.

"Tess had a baby boy on April 17th. The first of May, she and I took our babies down to Dr. Brown for an examination, and then went to town. We were walking down Broadway or 3rd South between State and Main. There was hole in the sidewalk, and I turned my ankle and went down. There was a loud crack and everybody around thought Greg had bumped his head, as he was really screaming. But my elbow had kept his head from hitting. Tess and I went up in the restroom of the Paris Dept. store, and I stopped Greg’s crying, My elbow hurt a bit, but when I tried to walk, I wanted to cry. My ankle hurt so badly. I said that I was sure that I had sprained my ankle. Greg weighed 20 lbs. and still couldn’t walk, so I carried him all over town with my ankle hurting. We caught the bus and went home. All that week, my ankle bothered me. Sometimes it felt like the bones rubbed together and I would fall down. A couple lived in Aunt Edna’s basements that were our friends. They came over and he looked at my ankle and said it looked like a broken bone he had seen at one time. I told him I could walk on it, so it probably wasn’t broken, but he said he thought a broken foot could be walked on.
So, Royce made an appointment with Dr. Brown and took me in. I t was broken, and I had walked on it so much the bones were rubbed smooth, so I couldn’t put any weight on it for 5 weeks. He put it in a cast, so, I ended up on crutches with a 20 lb. baby!
Royce’s youngest brother, Keith, was just getting out of the Navy and came up every day and helped me, and got Greg down for a nap. Then he came back for supper each night and helped Royce clean up after. It made it a lot easier for me. I really appreciated his help. I would carry Greg and crawl or put my knee on a chair and move it, or hop as I needed to."