Some Things Hurt for a Long, Long Time

In the post, "A Tribute to Daddy," I wrote about there being twelve children in his family. Grandma was sixteen years old when she married, gave birth to her first child at age seventeen, and the last child at age forty three. By the time the last children were born, the older ones had married and had children of their own. I'm sure the younger ones were cared for by older siblings; Daddy seemed to have a fondness for Bernice and he said Emma was Grandma's favorite.

This picture is of Grandma and five of her youngest children; Daddy ran off so he isn't included. They are, from left, Grandma, Emma, Bernice, Archie, (Daddy, John), Arge, and Dewey.

These are the three youngest: John, Dewey, and Arge. John was almost two years older than Arge. Sometime in the next year or two after this picture was made, Arge became very sick, and was diagnosed as having polio. I don't know all the details about his illness, but it must have been devastating to his parents to realize one of their children would be handicapped for the rest of his life. Maybe out of desperation as to "why?", brought out the terrible anger in Grandpa and caused him to take out his frustration on John, accusing the little boy of doing something to hurt his younger brother. He whipped the little boy without mercy until Archie stepped in and pushed Grandpa against the wall. John ran for the barn, crawled underneath the crib, and lay sobbing, from pain to his body and pain for the distrust he felt for his daddy. He wanted to die.

We didn't know about this part of Daddy's life until a few years ago when he told my sister, but had carried it in his heart. Some things hurt for a long, long time.

Arge and wife

Arge married and had one son; he was also a successful businessman and lived to be fifty two

years old.

The first two pictures are copies so that's the reason for their being unclear.