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Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Aid Yourself by Aiding Others repulsive or even puzzling, is an immense asset in a place like this. Many a heartbroken mother goes away comforted, after a sight of the long dining room with its bowls and bibs and highchairs, the big playroom with its rings of fat little cushioned chairs, the lawns and playground. And older children, chil-dren, the six and eight and 10 group, have been known in countless count-less cases to cry to come back, after a very brief contact with the big world outside. "Mrs. Drake has Introduced changes here that have been copied all over the union," said the old head doctor to me. "Just simple things, but things that never were done before. We first noticed the change in the noises they made when they were all together. Now that is over." "The old rule," he said, "was that they marched two and two for 20 minutes after breakfast, then climbed into the circle of chairs and stayed there. Any foot that came down was rapped. That was necessary, for they would have torn each other's eyes out, then. Now little sets come down in turn, and her nurses watch and grade them. These are little changes, but any change is sensational here." "She solved her problem," I said, in deep admiration. "Yes, and no one can do that and not solve a lot of others." ONE OF THE CRUELEST problems prob-lems life could bring to any woman came some years ago to Lily Drake. When her husband came home in 1946 Lily had a girl of 3, and a year later a boy was born. The boy was still an infant when his father was killed in a motor crash. They were driving along quietly enough in a summer dusk, but the man in the convertible behind be-hind them wasn't; Ward Drake was crowded against a bank, the car tipped over, little Ned was hurt, and the man of the family killed. Lily faced it, and was going along well enough when the real trouble developed. Her little son is an imbecile. No one knows whether the jarring crash of the accident brought it on, or whether it was rooted further back. For a little while Lily felt as if she couldn't face this blow. She had an office job at that time, received a pension, and whatever her mother's slender income added, for they all lived together. She investigated the situation for defective children and found the right place for Ned but at $300 a month. You, who don't know anything about it, may ask why small babies' care need cost so much. This is very special care. Children of this type never can be left alone. Day and night they must be watched. Almost every child needs a nurse; nurses are well paid. Little beds need daily changing chang-ing and airing; small garments are replaced as often as four times a day. As any mother of an Imbecile child knows, he cannot be kept at home. Neither child nor mother can stand it. So Lily tried everything, every-thing, she borrowed money, she "... she borrowed money ..." tried to find some kind old woman who would take him to the country. Then heart-broken, she put him into a state institution, and rented one of the cottages on the grounds, to be near him. She commuted to the city, 40 miles away. She got up at 5:30, caught a 7:15 bus, then a street car, then office hours and a counter lunch. And then the whole story backward, in burning summer heat and winter blackness. black-ness. Then she broke down. Convalescent, deep in debt but undaunted, Lily began to make herself her-self useful in the institution. She had been a war nurse; that training train-ing was invaluable. She studied the children; Ned she could not help, but he loved to be near her in a quiet, wistful little way, and many another child was brought to more normal work and play through Lily's interest. She is now one of the managers, at $400 a month, her cottage rent free, and little Jane, although aware that one of the children in the big tree-shaded tree-shaded hospital is her brother, seems not at all disturbed by the situation. But best of all, in this most heroic and satisfactory solution, is the fact that Lily has found herself, She loves her work; her fresh striped uniforms, her swarms of small adorers, her serious talks with the mothers and guardians who so much need her advice, and the cheer she brings them. For an attractive woman, obviously loved by her charges, not finding them |