Autobiography of Rozella Proctor-Part Three

Rozella Proctor

1 June 1909-12 December 1955

Chapter Four

In the Hospital

    When I was on a bed, Papa called a doctor.  The doctor examined me, but could hardly tell what the trouble was.  He came twice that day, then said my back was hurt, and I would have to be operated on.  But he said he would not perform the operation, and if he was papa he would take me to a back specialist.

     All day Monday Mama and my Aunt sewed getting me ready to go to the hospital at Salt Lake City, Utah.

Max, Ruth, Ethel and Rozella

     That night I left.  I had to be taken on a stretcher, so Daddy and the doctor took me in the baggage car.  At eight o’clock on Tuesday we were in Salt Lake City, where an ambulance was waiting to take me to the hospital. 

Rozella and Ruth

     Right after I got there the specialist examined me.  I could not feel a thing from my waist down.  They took an x-ray and found there were two clots of blood on the spinal cord.

Rozella in Yellowstone Park

     A little after one o’clock I was given some ether, and I never knew anymore till I felt the doctor pushing something in my arm that hurt.  Then he asked me if it hurt.  Later I found out they had injected something in my arm to keep me alive.

Grandpa and Grandma Proctor, Ethel, Inez, Rozella and Ruth in Wapello, Idaho

     I was in a private room for about two weeks.  The nurses were very good to me.  The doctors (I had five) were too, although I did not think at the time, the one that took the stitches out of my back was.

     After two weeks, I was moved to a ward and there I had a good time also.

Home in Wapello, Idaho

     Papa just stayed a week then went back, and Mama came.  On the Fourth of July all my folks came down, and although I still had to lie flat on my back I surely had a good time.  Every body was very good to me.

     I was in the hospital a little over two months, although I hated to leave all my new friends, I was very glad to get home.  

Ruth, Ethel, Inez and Rozella

Chapter Five

Later Years

     I did not send my lessons into the teacher that year.  The next year we moved to Bancroft, Idaho, and I sent my lessons in.  Just before school let out we had to move to Blackfoot again.  The teacher said to go to the next grade.  The next year I only sent my lessons in for half a year.  I thought it would be easier for Ethel and also myself if I waited till Ethel caught up with me then we would both have the same teacher.

Max, Rozella, and Ethel

     I have sent my lessons in to the teacher ever since then.  We lived in Aberdeen the last two years, and last Year I graduated from eighth grade.  Ethel couldn’t go to school the last day to get our diplomas as we were leaving Aberdeen, to be on our way to Montana.  So Mrs. Arms, our teacher, said she would send them to us, and sure enough, when we stopped in front of the Fifth Avenue Hotel the day we arrived in Malta, Montana, Daddy went in, and a few minutes came out and handed our diplomas to us.

In back: Grandma, Ethel,

Front:  Inez, Ruth, Rozella, Max and Grandpa

Home in Malta

     On September the eighth 1925 school started in Malta.  I did not start sending my lessons in for about two weeks.  I was rather uncertain whether to start high school or not I didn’t think I could on account of having three teachers, but a last I decided I had better learn while I had a chance.  The school was short on books for awhile, but now I have all of the books except for Algebra, but I am getting along pretty well.

Front: Rozella, Max, Ethel

Back: Inez and Ruth

     I don’t think the schools in Malta are nearly so good as they are in Idaho and Utah, and I surely wish I was back in Idaho.

Rozella

     I have always wanted to be a stenographer, but I could not take typewriting here, and I am rather disappointed.  

Rozella and Max

Rozella, Grandma and Grandpa and Dorothy

Rozella with Grandpa and Grandma

     I am sorry to say that this is all the Aunt Rozella wrote in her Life Story Booklet.  I wish that she would have included more about her life.  She truly was a remarkable lady with a remarkable attitude.  It will be great to meet her some day and see her walk, run and dance.  We miss you, Aunt Rozella but will see you again some day.