The time I spent getting to know my patients was the best part of nursing. As a hospital dialysis nurse, during the course of a four-hour treatment, we had a lot of time to talk. One of my favorite patients was a lively little seventy-year old lady, the mother of twenty-one children. I never knew what she’d have to say. When I expressed my amazement at her having so had many, she told me, “It wasn’t so bad. I had a set of twins, so I was only pregnant twenty times.”
“You must be proud of your kids,” I answered.
“Huh,” she snorted. “Ain’t half of ’em worth the powder it’d take to blow ’em away. I gotta keep my purse right with me.”
“Oh.” I had no other response to that.
She was always full of wild tales about getting the best of her “old man” who was twenty years older than she. I inferred they had a warm relationship, but she straightened me out when I expressed my condolences at her next treatment after his death.
“Mrs. Johnson, I ‘m sorry to her of your loss. I know you must miss your husband.” I dreaded the lonely times ahead for her.
She cackled. “I’m glad that old devil from hell is gone. I thought for sure he was gonna outlive me. My daddy gave me to him when I wad’n but thirteen years old. He beat me ever’day long as he was able. I was so proud when he got old and stoved up so I could take a piece of a firewood to him any time I got ready. I mean to tell you I whooped him many a time.”
She always gave me plenty to think about.
Wow she was quite a character and your story is very unexpected! Love it!
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Thank you, Lynn.
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Your story telling is so wonderful! I wish we could sit down and talk in person!
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Are you going to Blogfest in Chicago?
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I would like to, sounds like a huge thing to do but will try!
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Check email.
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Thanks
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Oh dear, why am I laughing! I laugh because she gave him a piece of his own medicine/beating hopefully.
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She certainly caught me by surprise.
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Sorry but I had to laugh she had a few years of peace after all 🙂
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That was good😄
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She sounds just like the women in the book The Color Purple which I am reading right now.
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That is a good one. Women really had it rough when they were under a man
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Oops…… truth! A lot to think about!!!
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Didn’t know what to say.
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What? You?
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Well, there’s something to think about. Sounds like a tough life one way or another for everyone concerned, all 23 of them.
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And they love bed in a decrepit 2 bedroom house.
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I can’t imagine all those kids sharing so few bedrooms. I know the damage that just two can inflict on a poor, unsuspecting room.
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They must have been packed in like sardines.
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Yet it still happens 😦
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Hahaha! What a character!
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She was feisty!
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Hahaha! She sounds like she was!
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Oh, boy!
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She is my kind of gal. The truth will set you free.
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She sure looked it in the eye.
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Reblogged this on Nutsrok.
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Thx
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What a shocking story, in so many ways.
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Left me speechless.
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I Bet
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I wonder how many Mrs. Johnson’s are out there ? 13…dear God.
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How awful.
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The sad truth of that story is very sobering, much closer to the truth than we realise….
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Hard to believe a man would just hand his child over to a monster, isn’t it.
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