A Spate of Illness

Hello Dear Reader,
It seemed that Grandpa (Wesley) Carter just recovered from his perforated ulcer and was getting back into the swing of things when Grandma (Mary) Carter became very ill. If I remember correctly it was on a Sunday night and Grandpa was leaving for London. One of the missionaries in the mission office was a doctor who had just completed his residency so we called him and asked him to come to see about Grandma. He came over with his little black bag and examined her as well as he could. He grew very concerned and said that she needed to go to hospital--that he thought she might have meningitis.

I don't remember if an ambulance came for her but I think one did. She was very ill with viral meningitis (in his history, Grandpa put "pneumonia" so I could be wrong) and couldn't move her neck at all. She was in a different hospital than Grandpa had been in and was there for eighteen days, flat on her back, barely able to move. She was also in a ward with lots of people around her. The hospital she was in was for communicable diseases but there were also many women who were mentally ill who would get up and stand over Grandma muttering during the night. It was a very frightening time for her.

Because Grandpa had to do his work he asked me to go to the hospital twice a day to visit and check that Grandma was getting well. In order to get to where she was I had to change busses twice and travel for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours one way. When I arrived at the hospital Grandma would cry and cry. It was very distressing for all of us.
Love,
Aunt Genni