Clarence and Naomi—Late in Life

After my father developed Parkinson’s disease, life became more difficult for my mother as the physical part of caring for him was surely a burden on my mother’s physical strength. But the 1950s were years of companionship between the two of them, despite my father’s increasing disability. It was in 1953 that they were able to make a trip west to visit me at 931 Seaview Drive and for me to take them south to see Marold and Jeanne. My father died about 1961 and following his death my mother cared in part for the needs of my uncle Carl and aunt Esther. Eventually she moved to my grandmother’s house after uncle Carl and aunt Esther moved to the home in Madrid. These were all happier years for her.

My mother had two serious operations during her life — one for goiter during the Depression years and for her gall bladder in the later 1940s. I suppose these left their mark on her constitution, as did her childbearing and the physical demands of the years caring for my father. Late in the 1960s my mother could no longer reside by herself and I believe she actually moved to Friendship Haven in Fort Dodge. However, she was there only for a very short time when a heart attack caused her death in the nearby hospital. As I recall she had just had a bath in her room in the hospital, the nurse or attendant had left and when someone checked her a few minutes later she had died. She was not quite 80 years old when she died.