OCR Text |
Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Plan, But Plan Where You Are 11 JJLL I WANT is a fresh start," says a tear-spattered letter from Vera, wife of Bill Taylor of Akron, Ohio. "Everything's gone wrong with us," she goes on, "and somehow we can't think how to get it straight. I am 29, Bill 30; we truly love each other, we don't want a divorce. But for two years since my mother died it's been nothing but bad luck, being sorry for each other, and being caught in a groove. We have two children Tony, who is 6 and Buttercup, 4. "A confused day like this," continues con-tinues this discouraged woman, "I feel I have nothing to show for eight years of marriage. My dancing dan-cing figure, my once pretty hair, my clothes, blankets, curtains, house and farm all a mess! My father fa-ther and mother lived with us, both invalids, and Bill was wonderful to them, until Dad died in '47 and Mother the next year. They left us hospital and doctor bills of more than $4,000. Bill's salary is $4,800 when taxes are paid, and of that we pay $200 a month or a little more on. the bills. Managing on what's left leaves me no room for anything pretty or easy. Now Tony has an eye trouble that will take years to cure; it means clinic visits and doctors, and, of course, anxious strain. Wants New Start "So I want a new start. I want to go back to my old office job, board the children with some good woman, wom-an, see them week ends, and find a room where Bill and I can live for a year or two. Finding an apartment apart-ment is out of the question. I want to wear smart shirtwaists again, j and go to a show now and then. I want someday to start housekeeping But naturally, with a shabby I house, piled-up debt, anxiety about Tony, and a wood stove, you've been beaten down, and you don't see things as they are. At 29 you still can use a year or two in readjustment, readjust-ment, and discover that the dancing figure, the pretty clothes, the washing wash-ing machine and the new stove can all be attained, and undrjeamed of fun and achievement beyond that. To pay off $200 a month on a debt is magnificent, and even in your discouragement you must see that that's going to clear off the four thousand in less than two years. Congratulations on your courage on that point. Then I wouldn't let 42 acres lie idle. If Bill doesn't want to turn farmer, why, there are many couples in our country now, men and women trained for farm work in Europe, longing for a chance like the one you could give them, to retrieve re-trieve that farm. Government will help them there, and help you, and who knows but when the man is farming the woman could sometimes some-times help you indoors? You may be pretty sure she is used to a wood stove, and thankful to God when she can get wood for it For the anxiety over Tony's eyes I have no cure, except to say that thousands of small children go through that now, and Instead of growing up half blind or squinting or cross-eyed as the earlier generations genera-tions did, they actually get cured. A 20-year-old nephew that I love had what looked like hopelessly bad eyes, at eight, had two operations, inany years of weaker and weaker glasses, and now uses no glasses at all and hasn't for years. Plan of course, Vera. But plan with what you've got, not with what you haven't got. ". , . hasn't been farmed . . ." with a refrigerator, new linoleum, a gas stove I feel as if I had to get out or go crazy. The place hasn't been farmed since Bill's father stopped work 10 years ago. Just the sight of these run-down barns and sheds and orchards makes me sick. "Last year you wrote an article," Vera's letter concludes, "advising all of us who find ourselves bogged down, to make a plan. To look beyond be-yond the present, and spread imaginary imag-inary wings, and lift ourselves on a plan. Well, this is mine. Can you help me talk Bill over to it?" Vera, I'm all for a plan for you. But not your plan. Your plan already al-ready is clearly indicated; it was outlined when you married a country coun-try boy and went out to live on a small farm. You've let the farm, the children, your marriage, and everything else go to seed, and a completely new plan, splitting your family into pieces and practically abandoning the children, wouldn't work at all. Wonderful Record You say you've nothing to show for eight years; you've everything to show. And with some realistic planning you can have a lot more. Raising two children, caring for two dependent old persons, being nice to them that's a wonderful record. |