The Sister I Never Knew 1943 - 1951

According to the Dictionary:  Rheumatic Fever is a severe infectious disease occurring chiefly in children, marked by fever and painful inflammation of the joints and frequently resulting in permanent damage to the heart valves. 

Classic symptoms are fever,joint pain, fatigue, paleness, lack of appetite, weight loss, rash and bouts of strep throat.

The Dreaded Diagnoses
In 1947 my sister was diagnosed with a bout of the Whooping Cough then later a diagnoses of Rheumatic Fever.  In the 1940s children were not vaccinated against Whopping Cough and many children died from this disease. Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that affects the lungs. Penicillin had been discovered but evidently not widely in use since it was a new drug. Carol's heart may have already been too weakened for drugs to help.

A Little About Carol
Carol was born August 17,1943 in Union Furnace,Ohio. She was born in a large two-story house that was situated back a ways off from Highway 328. The driveway to the house went under the old wooden railroad trestle. In 1947, my mother with children in tow, went to live with her parents on the Nickle Plate Road farm. Pictures of Carol show her as being a cute little girl with blond hair and blue eyes. I don't remember seeing any pictures of Carol smiling. I remember a color picture of Carol hanging in our living room. The picture was in a huge oval shaped frame. Mother made sure Carol's picture was always on display.     

Carol was in and out of Children's Hospital numerous times over a three year period. On good days when she was able to be at home, she joined her siblings in playing with toy cars and trucks. The children liked to play in the basement near the coal pile. This part of the basement was unfinished with a dirt floor and a heap of dirt near the coal pile. I imagine they played in the dirt loading the little toy trucks with bits and pieces of coal. Cardboard boxes were another favorite play item. Most children didn't have lots of toys back then,so having a big imagination and creativity served as useful entertainment. 

On one of Carol's really good days she went with her younger brother to ride on an old push-and-ride metal scooter. The two instigated a plan to ride the scooter to the small village of Union Furnace. Perhaps they were thinking of purchasing some penny candy from the country store. Penny candy was kept inside a big wood and glass display case which made it very enticing for young children. The two young children didn't get very far. They managed to get to the end of the lane before they were discovered missing. Walking the country lane was a fairly far distance for Carol considering her illness and the Doctor's protocol for limited physical activity.

Carol went to Union Furnace school for only short periods of time. Our road wasn't on the bus route during this time in the 1940s. My oldest brother reported that Mr. Geiger was the bus driver; however, Mr. Geiger drove his personal car which was a 1937 Chevrolet, to the farmhouse to pickup the kids so they could get to school.

Added Memories of The Geiger Store As Told By My Brother
Mr. Geiger also operated a small grocery store as well as sold gasoline. His store was located on Highway 328 across from the United Brethren Church in Union Furnace, Ohio. My brother, who was about ten-years-old at the time,remembers this store in detail because of the old gas pumps. A clear visible glass cylinder which held a few gallons of gas was on top of the pump so you could see what you were getting or to measure the gallons of gasoline. In those days you requested gas by how many gallons you wanted. A manual pump was used to get the gasoline out of the underground tank. In order to get gasoline you needed to pull back and forth on the pump to get the gas into the glass cylinder at the top. This apparatus was eight or ten feet tall and the gas flowed down a hose by gravity into the car. These pumps were popular in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.  
    
Children's Hospital Stays
I'm sure Carol dreaded being ill, staying in the hospital, and she felt abandoned as I remember the stories mother told of her lengthy stays at Children's Hospital. Mother couldn't stay with Carol all the time; having other children at home to care for and not wanting to put all the responsibility of caring for them on her mother,(my grandmother),as well as having limited funds which made the situation even worse. I know my mother felt guilty for not always being able to stay at the bedside of her very sick little girl. 
  
My oldest brother remembers the blizzard of 1950 when the lane to our house had over four feet of snow to be shoveled out. Carol had been home for awhile when the blizzard hit. Carol suddenly became much worse;having to call an ambulance to come to the house;there was an immediate need to clear the lane. It took several people to shovel the snow. Mother with a shovel in hand joined the others in clearing the road. The road to Union Furnace was cleared but the road going to Logan in the other direction was closed. The snow drifts in that direction had reached as high as seventeen feet, needing a bulldozer to open up the road. 

Death Comes to Nickle Plate Farm
During the next six months Carol's condition continued to worsen. Many, many times mother would get on the bus in Logan and ride to Columbus to be with her very sick child. It was May 12th, 1951 when eight-year-old Carol took her last breath. Mother said that white doves came and lingered at the window when Carol died and there were white doves at the funeral home as well. I can't imagine the overwhelming sorrow and grief that my mother felt at that moment. I do know that mother blamed herself for not being able to do more and she carried this burden of guilt with her for years.

Mother made arrangements with the funeral home to transport the casket to the Nickle Plate Farm House. Friends,neighbors,and family came to pay their respects. After several days the casket was transported to the United Brethren Church in Union Furnace for the funeral. Mother placed all of Carol's dolls and toys in the casket with her. Many people attended the funeral as well as students and teachers from the school. Carol's body was laid to rest at the New Straitsville Cemetery, New Straitsville, Ohio, beside her grandparents.

Saying Goodbye
Saying goodbye is always hard but when you're only a child it's even worse. My sister claims she has no memory of Carol even though there are pictures of them together. My younger brother was very young at the time and has a very limited memory of her. I gained so much more information about Carol in a twenty-minute span from my older brother, who was about ten-years-old at the time of her death. I was born later, so I never knew Carol.

Mother continued to speak of Carol throughout the years. She worried that Carol would be forgotten and flowers would not be placed on her grave every year. Since my mother's passing, every year either my siblings or I place flowers on the grave of the sister I never knew.