October 27, 1951

[This is another hand-written letter, since she was still in Portland, Oregon, away from home.]

710 S.E. 61st Avenue

Potland 16, Oregon

October 27, 1951

Dearest Mother and Daddy,

The letter you mailed the 22nd got here, I think, the 24th. They really make pretty good time coming here. I should have answered it sooner, but got busy and just didn't.

We are planning to leave here next Wednesday morning. We will be in the Mt. View area by Friday anyway. Just at which place we'll stay we don't know yet, but at least we'll be seeing Lloyd and the kids [her sister's widower and their children]. Probably we will leave there about Monday or maybe Tuesday and head straight for home.

We have been having a lovely time, but it will be good to get home again.

This last Thursday Annie May took us for a ride up the Columbia River, and it surely was beautiful. It was the first sunshiny day we had had in a week here. This is really wet country. Benton and I are quite satisfied just to visit and are glad we live in California instead of Oregon.

So Joan Henthorn (?) has her baby. I must get busy on those booties. I'm glad it was a girl -- all the Henthorns are boys.

The house must look lovely. We'll have to come around to see it one of these days.

Is Uncle Roy's [my mother's mother's brother, I think] address still the same? If you have it handy, you could send it to me. If we get a chance, we might go to see him sometime.

We'll be glad to see Lucille whenever she can come. We'll be home again by that time.

Benton's mother has picked up since we have been here -- comes out with some pretty cute things sometimes. It is just sad to see her mind wander so, though much of the time it is quite clear. We have to dress and undress here, as she gets her clothes all mixed up. We have also kept busy trying to help around the house. I've been doing most of the cooking -- have made a couple of apple pies, a roast, soup just about every day, etc. It has been fun.

Sunday a.m.

It is nearly noon, and Benton and I have just finished the washing. It was foggy all morning, but the sun just came out. I gave Benton's mother a bed bath this a.m. too, so have been busy. Now I'm about to get lunch ready. Annie May gets home about 12:15. I think I'll have eggs scrambled with a dab of mushroom soup and some cheese -- never heard of it before, but thought it might be good.

Well, take care of yourselves. We love you lots. You are the best mother and daddy in the world.

Love,

Lois Ruth & Benton

October 21, 1951

[This letter was hand-written rather than typed like the others. This was no doubt because she was in Portland, Oregon, and had not brought her typewriter with her.]

710 S.E. 61st Avenue

Portland 16, Oregon

October 21, 1951

Dearest Mother and Daddy,

Well, here I sit in the big chair listening to Annie May's radio while Benton has his feet on the register and is reading the paper. [Annie May was my dad's younger sister.]

The letter your wrote Friday arrived here yesterday. That's faster than we get mail in Loma Linda from Phoenix.

You are surely ambitious, Mother, to be doing all that painting. I hope you don't do more than you should in all of your zeal. You'll have the house looking so slick we won't know how to act when we come again -- clean new paint and fancy new curtains.

We are having a nice visit. I find I have married into a very lovely family, though of course Benton is the best one in it. He seems to be a general family favorite too among all the nieces and nephews and aunts, etc. They all think he is pretty wonderful.

Benton's mother isn't very well. [She was born in Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic but in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time) in the 1880s. She had emigrated with her family to the U.S. when she was only a small girl. I never met her.] She has a little arthritis, but mostly her troubles are simply due to old age -- senility. She gets around a little, but lies down most of the time. She reminds me so much of Grandpa. She walks just about as he did and everything. She gets confused quite a bit too -- goes back into the past. She'll worry about whether there is fuel in the fire, though when her mind is clear she knows the heat is controlled by a thermostat. Then sometimes she thinks there is an outside toilet. She sleeps much during the day and prowls at night. Annie May was just about worn out from being up with her so much at night, so we sent Annie May next door to Dayton's and Benton and I get up with her. [Dayton was my dad's older brother. He and his wife lived right next door to Annie May in Portland, Oregon.] She is all right most of the time, but often she is confused -- wanted me to put up the shades to let in the light this morning before daylight. All this has been going on for only about 6 weeks. Before that she did the cooking for Annie May and some of the work. She was a little better this last week, they say, than she had been for a while - guess it did her good to see Benton. She is really a sweet old lady and still comes out with a little quite unexpected wit every once in a while. She worries for fear I'll work too hard just like you do, Mother. But I really don't do very much around here.

Annie May works every day at the Portland San [Sanitarium], which is just a block from here. She has charge of Central Supply from which they dispense portable equipment, I.V.'s, pharmaceuticals, etc. She does the buying for the department and everything. She is three years younger than Benton -- is very sweet.

Benton's brother Dayton lives next door. He and his wife Goldie are Rachel's parents. They have been very sweet to me too.

Sunday evening 6:30

Well, here we all sit -- even Benton's mother. We have just finished supper. I got it while Benton and Annie May did the washing. Annie May washes in the basement and usually hangs the clothes there because it is usually raining outside. It has rained most of the day today -- this is rainy country, and Benton and I are glad we don't live here all the time.

Poor Helen! -- and all the rest of my friends. I'm planning a duplicated letter to mail out, but haven't written it yet. Perhaps I can get it written while we are here. I already have the stuff to type it on and someone to run it off for me at the academy in Loma Linda. I owe at least 35 letters, and that seems to be the only way I'll ever get them all written. It beats all how many things seem to have to get done.

Your letter mailed Oct. 11 came the same day I wrote you that last card. Omer [He was my half-brother and was in the Air Force at that time.] is home and forwards our mail to us. We'll be here until after next week end anyway. I don't know just how long Benton will plan to stay. He is a bit anxious about his mother and wants to see how she gets along.

Did you know that while you were enclosing various letters you sent me back the last one I wrote you? I'll send it back.

The kids are having quite a time with their folks. I'm glad they stayed. Incidentally, this absence may contribute to your added well-being. You just don't have so much to worry about much now.

Right now I don't need the skirt and suit. We'll see about them when we go to Phoenix again, which may not be too terribly long away.

Well, I guess this will be all for tonight. Do take care of yourselves. We love you heaps. Benton sends love too.

Oodles of love,

Lois Ruth and Benton

October 5, 1951

About noon, October 5, 1951

Dearest Mother and Daddy,

We just finished our Friday cleaning -- Benton helped me by vacuuming and shaking the rugs, -- and now Benton is up on the hill and I have everything already to heat for dinner, so thought perhaps I could sneak in a note to you. Should have done it before, but I get busy doing things and just don't get to writing at all.

Yestrday we got our release from the lawyer to sign for a settlement of $1000. It is a printed release, and one paragraph states that the fact that they are offering a settlement does not mean that they accept any responsibility in any way whatsoever for the accident. I hate to sign it, yet I almost believe it is the thing. The lawyer went over everything with us, and it doesn't look as if we do have too much fighting chance. Even Harold, who had more hopes before than anyone else did, doesn't think there would be much chance. None of us can believe that Florence was all to blame by any means -- perhaps not to blame in any way, -- but we have no witnesses, and the evidence, be it false or true, which the other side has makes it look as if the truck was simply minding his own business on his own side of the white line, and it would be hard to convince a jury of unprejudiced people otherwise. We were going to try to prove negligence because he didn't sound his horn, but can't prove that at the speed we were both traveling he could really have had time both to blow the horn and swerve at the same time. What we rather think is that probably both our car and the truck were just about on the white line, and niether swerved soon enough, but we can't prove that at all. If we took it to court we probably would get nothing out of it and would just have court costs to pay. However, the only way we could get anything was do what we did -- file a claim and let them offer a settlement. Your letter, Daddy, came yesterday -- I mean day before yesterday, -- and I thought maybe we should go through with the suit. However, when we got the release -- a standard printed form, -- and it said that this payment was in no way an admission of any responsibility of any kind whatsoever, I wondered and Benton had thought for a long time that the lawyer might be crooked because he had waited so long, but then he read an article in a recent Reader's Digest about the courts and how they all got far behind because they had a much greater volume of business in the last several years, but no increase in judges to take care of it. Consequently many cases were delayed and justice was not carried through properly. Now Benton seems to think the lawyer is all right. We surely prayed a lot about it -- even just before we went in to see the lawyer. It is a ridiculously low payment, but I really don't think we have the evidence to win in court, because they in no way accept any responsibility in making this payment.

That surely was sweet of Lucile to wash the woodwork for you. It surely needed it, and you just aren't strong enough to do things like that.

We may be going to Benton's mother's any time now. His man [actually, his patient] is still living, but he may have to drop the case and go anyway in the next week or two. His mother isn't too well -- wants to stay in bed all the time, just doesn't seem to have much interest in doing anything else. She has arthritis, and just doesn't have anything to make her interested in doing anything at all. We probably will be going up in another week or two anyway.

We were so happy to hear about Daddy's raise. The Lord surely does take care of us, doesn't He? Now he will be getting about $20 more than doing the janitor work, and I am sure the work is much easier for him and that he will do much more good doing it.

... [I removed a paragraph here because it was more personal talked about a person who may still be alive.]

I have been busy sewing. Benton's night shirt is all done except taking out the bastings and tacking down the facing around the neck. It took me quite a while to match the plaids -- they are on the bias. Then I have almost finished that blue plaid skirt that you cut out for me while I was in training. I am putting on the waist band. It is going to look very nice. I want it to wear to Portland [where my dad's mother and other members of his family lived].

I didn't iron at all last week, so this week it really piled up as we washed again Monday. Tuesday night I got busy and ironed nine pairs of pants in one evening. I found that I could cut about a third off the time doing a pair when I stood up to iron. That gave me a little courage.

Last Sabbath I had a houseful of company. One of the fellows I used to go to school with at A.U.C. has recently moved to town with his family. I knew they weren't very settled, so invited them home to dinner Sabbath. That was five, and then I invited Art Moores home too. He is the one I used to write to -- the medical student. We were just recovering from that -- had lain down about half an hour when the phone rang and who should be on the other end of the line but Inez Gram Scofield [a childhood friend of my mom]! I got so excited that my headache went away and didn't come back all evening. Here she was in Loma Linda. Her husband now has a Master's degree in pharmacy and is working at the White as of two or three weeks ago. They came out and had supper and spent the evening with me, and we had a wonderful time. But you should have seen the dishes. Everyone had wanted to help me do them, but I hadn't felt like doing them then, so wouldn't let them do it. It took me more than an hour to do them that night, but I just took it easy -- it sort of relaxed me a little. It will be swell to have so many of my friends around handy. I had just a wonderful time.

Well, now it is 12:45, so I'd better wind this up and get my husband something to eat. We love you and pray for you. Do take care of yourselves and don't overdo. We don't want anything to happen to you.

Much, much love,

Lois Ruth and Benton