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Show FOCUS other mazing when the babies were due. I wasn't I knew nature would take care of itself. Within five days after that baby was bora, I was up helping load logs. Didnt seem to hurt me. "A freak accident put me in the hospital before Donny was bora. Dad and I went to town for him to get a haircut I took my crocheting and planned to sit in die car, relax and crochet. Such moments were very precious. Ax I sat there, quite relaxed, a woman came out- of a building nealty screaming, cussin (such carrying on Td never heard) jumped into her car and sped off. The front bumper of her car caught the back bumper of ours, throwing it across the street, me in iL I ended 19 hi die The accident occurred hospital for several weds. December 22 and I was sdll in the hospital April 2 when Donny was bon. We were afraid foe baby would be crippled or hurt, but he was okay. As our children arrived, we gathered maiqr adopted and foster children too. In fret, for several years we had 22 children living at home at one time. Now that was - funll! We had a lot of children come to us during die depression years. Those were hard times. Their folks just couldnt take care of diem. My husband was working in the oQ fields and I went to work in die cotton and grain fields gathering cotton and corn. With his work in the oil fields, he would work several weeks and then have several days off. On these days off, he would come snd work in the fields with me. One evening we gathered our family together, loaded diem in our pickup truck and went to the cotton fields to work. He had fixed a frame around die back of the truck and coveted it with screen. We had curtains fixed to roll up or down to either keep die kids warm or shade them from die son. In this manner, we could our family with us. They played or slept while we worked. I see you got a lot of kids, this strange man rematfced to Dad one evening. Yap, Ive got one or two, Dad replied. 'Would you like to have any more? die man queried. Oh, I dont know, shrugged Dad. They talked for several minutes and I heard Dad say, TH have to ask my woe m. me He came and asked if I was wflfing to take that mans children to care for. Those little kids were just standing there. They looked so pitiful. I nodded yes and Dad said to the man, Put them in the pickup. Tu need their birth certificates and a record of their shots. Yoa realize I'm not adopting them, but will try to take care of diem until they are on their own. On another occasshm, we were living far Walters, Oklahoma. A woman came by one day and said, 'Mrs. Gerrard. Tm to ask you something. Yoaie going to going Maybe not, I said. Lets hear what it is." Would you like to have my Bwfe twins? I thought she Sure, give them to me. kidding. She left and directly, here she came children with her, each carrying a baby and she was packing their dotiies. I She had seventeen children and was pregnant again. She just couldnt take care of die twins. Their names were Floyd and Lloyd. One had the curliest hair and the other had hair as straight as a string. They were dear little things. We kept them with us until they were old enough to enlist in die military service. We had one adopted boy, Larry. That was the sweetest youngin. He was a handsome lad with black curly hair and a very cooperative personality. How did we get him? His mother had died, his father had turned into an alcoholic. He and his litde sister were living with their grandparents. The grandmother took Ql with a terminal illness. His grandfather told him, 'Larry, I dont know what Im going to do with you. Your grandmother is dying. Let me go stay with Mrs. Gerttrd, he answered. Oh, she won't want you. She' has so many kids. But she lfres me, he insisted. WeD go tomorrow and see, the grandpa said. When they came down, Dad said we would be tickled to care for him. He stayed with us until he enlisted in the service. He is married and has his own family now. I still remember how he would help around the house, wiping up spills, picking up after tne little kids, just pleasantly helping wherever he could. "Along with Dads work as a trouble shooter in the oil fields, we picked up odd jobs to help support our family. When times were really hard, we spent our spate time saw. Me on one sawing mine props. We used a cross-cend. Dad on the other. We also cut firewood. We would get $5 for a truckload of firewood cut and hauled into town. You would work your head off for that much, but it fed us. We didnt go hungry. On one job we even worked ride by ride in the oil fields. During the depression, my husband was asked to dean seven wells. He didnt have anyone to help him. The woman who owned the wells asked if bis wife could help. Do you think she would get greasy like that?" ,fTry me and see, I said. We got S70 for cleaning the seven. That was a lot of money during those times. Youd get paid that much now for being asked to dean one, without doing any work. As I listened to Mrs. Gerrard tell of the many circumstances in which they acquired their adopted and foster children, the impact of the love involved amaard me. The love die Gerrards displayed, not only for their own children, but for the child who needed their love, their substance, their shelter, is truly overwhelming. I find myself amaaed as well at the kwe shown by the natural parents. To be able to relinquish the children they knew they were unable to care for, into the hands of someone else, is a love most of us find hard to fathom, let alone ut Next week we win rejoin the Gerratds with a few stories of their home life. As told by Mina Gerrard. Written by Carolyn Winters. All copyrights reserved. |