Quilters Part 10

Tumbling Blocks Quilt Blocks

There are funny and poignant moments associated with Betty’s children.

Betty and Raymond learned the term, “Pre-existing condition,” when Blue Cross refused to pay hospital bills. Daughter, Sandy, suffered from innumerable kidney infections and at age four underwent exploratory surgery. Three kidneys were found. One immature infected kidney damaged the normal kidney to which it was attached and both were removed.

Even a trip to the Indianapolis office of Blue Cross did not solve the problem.

Devona endeared herself to her family at a young age by asking her grandmother to, “Hot this Potato.” She was always the tender hearted, kind and nurturing person she is today. Raymond recently said, “Devona and I are just a like you know.” Devona was born on Raymond’s birthday. He rewarded Betty with a washer and dryer. Betty reminded us as we reclined by her hospital bed in the lounge chairs provided in today’s modern hospitals that when Devona was hospitalized with respiratory problems, Betty found a board that she placed between two chairs and used for a bed.

Dennis tended to stray while Betty hung clothes on the line so she learned to tie him to the clothesline via his overalls. Betty shared that one of her most precious memories of Dennis occurred in the car. He was about 4 standing in the front of their old auto which featured an extra tall front window. Betty demonstrated his eye and hand movements as she recalled his words, “The prayers go up, and the blessings come down.”

We also delighted in taunting him with an ugly red rubber mule that brayed mournfully. He would cry mournfully in return to Betty's dismay. He called road graders, “Wheel Sippers” and begged to visit Doc and Miss Kitty when we passed a bar in Hamburg, IN called “The Long Branch.”

And then there was the day that Betty lost Sharon.! Betty and other mothers drove multiple carloads to a 4-H club picnic. Dennis recalled, “I can even remember the time she stopped a line of cars in the highway to discover that Sharon had been left behind at Starve Hollow Lake, so she headed back to the park to find her swinging and having fun.”

Sunday dinner was especially delicious after Betty found Sharon’s pet rooster attacking her. Sharon, laying prostrate in the yard, survived the experience but tended to prefer cats and dogs after that.

Devona: "I consider us a family who got to experience the true American life – fresh plowed fields to walk in, hikes on Sunday, sled riding in the snow, fresh tomatoes from the garden, decorated bikes at the community parade, aunts and uncles we really knew, fresh baked goodies, hayrides and lots of friends."

Dennis: "For most of our childhood we were always included in whatever was going on. We always had some expectations of us. Seasonal gardening always brought interesting times. We inspected the garden seed in those little brown bags or pouches, made the rows for the seed and covered the seed with soil after they were dropped with perfect precision. We fought the weeds all summer long, but everyone hung in there until the end. You know, I think that probably taught us to have fun in whatever we were doing. Watch ya got in our early days in the Boley family was the feeling of togetherness, never going without what you really needed, dreaming big but never going passed your resources, and always trying to help someone less fortunate than yourself."

On October 9, 2010, one week before Betty's pancreatic cancer was diagnosed,

we all gathered to provide a community wide 90th birthday celebration for Katie's Grandmother Wildman in Dupont, Indiana. When friends commented on the support Katie received in producing the event Betty remarked,

"Where you find one of us, you find us all."