So, wanted to write about this Geneology moment. Certainly random. I was chatting with my mother. She had some Book of Rememberance books out. They are really old books that we use to make with group sheets and people's histories in them. Now we put all that stuff on Ancestry.org or family search.com. I have a cousin (well, cousin's daughter) Julie Carling who is getting into geneology. She has been interested in my Gma's sister, Elpha. Julie's Gpa is my mother's Brother. Uncle bob. My mom was telling her about Elpha. No one really knew much about Elpha. My mother was in college at BYU when her mom, Stella, came to visit and said they were going to the State Mental Hospital and visit Gma's sister, Elpha. My mother had NO idea Elpha even existed.
My mom said she died that same year. She was born in 1905. Julie wanted to know more about her. She wrote to the Utah State Hospital and they sent her a bunch of stuff. Some of the stuff they sent said that Elpha was there because she had Measles and Infantile Paralysis. My mom remembers she had a really big head when she visited her. Really sad actually.
My mother was telling me tonight why those books were out. Julie was asking about Elpha and so marlena was reading her mother's life story. She said she remembered playing with her brother and two sisters. Elpha was fine until about age 12. It cost 50.00 a month to keep Elpha at the State hospital and the bill was signed every time H.S. Cahoon. Hyrum Styles Cahoon. That was my Grandma's dad. Think about 50.00 a month over 100 years ago. That was a lot of money. They were farmers from Delta and didn't have much.
But to make the story even more sad, my mom said that one of the bills or statements to the State Hospital said that they would have trouble making the 50.00 payment (or it would be late) because their daughter and three children just came to live with them. That daughter was MY Grandma Stella and the three kids were My mother, Uncle Bob (Julie's Gpa) and Uncle Dale. The reason they came to live with them was her husband drove them to Deseret (a subdivision outside of Delta) and left.
I'm sure that was scandalous too. People didn't get divorced back in those days. She had to live with her parents she had no way to make a living.
My mother started crying when she told me this story. Wow. She said she had NO idea it was a hardship them living with them. She lived with them 4 years until my Gma got married to my Gpa Fon. The boys finished high school and helped with farming and stayed living with their gma and gpa.
Wow. My mother had No idea, and she is 84 years old. What a compliment to them. Take them in and my mother said my Gpa was so kind. She told me that years ago he was kind to them. You know, NO one knows what families go through. Or really what people are living right now.
I just keep thinking about the times this occurred. Imagine having a child that was mentally impaired (not sure what the diagnosis was but she was in the mental hospital) and that they needed to be secretive about it. THEN your other daughter's husband leaves her and their children so she has to move home. That must have been very socially unacceptable too. I really admired my Gma Stella. She was a worker and has worked her whole life. She worked at the D. Stevens which was a store in Delta. Then she took tickets at the movie house after that job in the evenings. And imagine the financial hardship for Grandpa Hyrum.
