Painful Memories
One of the most painful memories of my dad was watching his mother and father die, while he was a teenager. It was not at the same time. It was several years apart from the same horrible disease.
That same disease is almost unknown in the United States today.
What my grandparents died from was TB or Pulmonary Tuberculosis. In the 1930’s it was know as the “Great White Plague” or Consumption. It was a time before Antibiotics. Over 70% of those who contracted the disease died. Treatment and death was quite painful, both for the victim and the family members who looked on.
It was a time in my fathers life that he would not talk to any of his children. I remember seeing the pain in his eyes, at 60 standing over his mother’s grave in almost tears.
I only found out how my grandfather and grandmother from my dad’s cousins. It was with them that he lived, after they died. You see my dad was in his mid teens when had to endure such pain. Pain that I never had to go through. Pain I never knew about until I was in my 30’s at family reunion.
It was there one of my dad’s cousins and I was watching my dad and another cousin talk. She told me to store how this cousin of my dad took him under his wing, after my grand parents died.
She even told me how the family tried to keep my dad his brother and sister together. Each one could not stand looking at the other because when they saw their siblings all they saw was their parent’s dying a most painful death.
Maybe? Could it be us grandkids were affected? Could it be why we run from pain? Could it be a contributing factor in why we don’t see each other? Why we are not close at all?
Here it is almost 80 years later. The result of that painful memory still exists. It has defeated almost two full generations. Maybe it is time to turn that painful memory around.
