One day just before I left the hospital, I heard Mommy talking to the doctor who was the surgeon. She was telling him about the red birthmark I had when I was born. One just like it came on my right shoulder in the same spot, as it was on my left shoulder when I was a baby. This was when I got sick with the tummy aches and the pain in my left leg. It finally disappeared all by itself in a few weeks.

We went home in the automobile, two weeks before Mommy's wedding anniversary on October 15. It was the end of September 1950.

I went for my treatments, but, finally, I couldn't eat anything. I drank tea.

I felt nauseated all the time. I read and laid in bed. Once in a while, I dressed myself when I felt better, and we went for rides in the car.

I read and read about Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne, and about Heidi and lots of other books. Whenever I heard our teakettle whistle, I knew Mommy was making tea for me.

We bought our whistling teakettle at Jenkins Hardware store just before I got sick. We went in one day, and we bought all kinds of utensils for our kitchen. We bought the copper Trig kettle. I liked the sound. It was cheerful.

One day I was very, very happy. Sandra came to see me. She brought me lots of charms. After she was there for a while, I didn't feel very good, and I had to lie down on the bed. We did mirror writing and dressed dolls and played tic-tac-toe and crossword puzzles.

Then we said good-bye. I felt sick, but I wanted to walk to the door with her. I said, "Good-bye, Sandra," and I threw her a kiss. She said, "Good-bye, Linda," and threw me a kiss. Then Mommy drove her home.

One day a man came about a kitchen table. We had talked to him at Sears store on North Avenue. He showed us one we liked in a catalogue, and he came this day to show it to us again, and Mommy called to me who was in the living room.

I got up out of bed, and I put on my plaid blouse and my blue jeans with my cowboy belt that is leather and has shiny horses' heads on it. I walked into the living room and sat in our Mr. Boston rocking chair. I wanted to be sure Mommy got the right table.

The man wrote it all down. It was gray and shiny chromium, Beautychrome set 63RP/#915, and it had red Chinese writing on the corners of it, and nice smooth, rounded edges. The chairs were red with chromium legs and beads around the gray shadowbox inside the back of the chair, with a red Chinese letter inside. There was white piping around the back. The edges are all round and smooth. We ordered three chairs.

One day Aunt Dorothy came to see me. She heard I wasn't better and couldn't eat. She made oatmeal for me. I didn't eat it. While she was talking to Mommy about how to feed me, I suddenly ached so much from my head to my feet that I screamed, "Get me up off of this bed!' Mommy ran to me, white as the sheet. She lifted me. But I still screamed.

She called the doctor. She wanted me to be in the hospital where she could make me more comfortable. He said it was a good idea. He told her to call an ambulance in Towson.

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