December 31, 2015
Just before Easter when Susie was about 3 we went to Kresges in downtown Adrian to get her a new Easter hat. Somehow I shut her finger in the car door. I believe that it hurt me as much as it hurt her.
When she was 3 we visited Aunt Lucy Downs in Troy, New York. On the way we went to Niagra Falls. It was nerve racking for me with a 3 year old and a 9 months baby in a stroller to make sure they stayed safe.
In the spring when Susie was 3 or 4 she broke out with bumps and rash on her hands, arms, knees and legs. We thought that it was poison ivy and treated her for it. It kept getting worse and the skin would break open. So we took her to the doctor and got an ointment that cleared it up. Every spring after that she would start getting bumps that would itch and we put the ointment on it before it got a good start and it would go away. This has continued. We never did figure out what she was allergic to.
The year she was 5 years old she started school. On the first day of school I rode to school with her on the school bus. A big change for her and for her family. One of the things that I remember is her coming home from school saying that the teacher said…….., meaning it didn't matter what I said it was what the teacher said that counted. Had I realized that she needed another year to be more ready for school, she may not have had to do 2nd grade another year, but by doing that she seemed to catch up.
For the class trip to a farm at the end of kindergarten, half of the class had the hard measles. Sue was in the half that was home sick. She was very sick with them.
The summer that her brother, Daniel was born she and her sister, Nancy stayed with grandma and grandpa Poling. While they were there they broke out with chicken pox. She had lots of them.
In going to teacher conferences the comment that I heard from her teachers was “she is too quiet”.
In 1968 we drove to Virginia to pick up Grandma Comfort from Uncle Horace's house where she had been visiting. We went into Washington D.C. to see the sights. We were coming down the Capital building steps and Susie fell, skinned up her knee and broke her new sunglasses. They also watched fireworks at the Washington Monument.
She had an experience of getting stitches after trying to make a jack-o-lantern. Her hand slipped from the handle up the blade of the knife.
In 5th grade Susie started getting headaches that made her sick. She missed a lot of school. We took her to the doctor and she had tests that included an EEG. It seemed to be a form of epilepsy, but did not manifest any seizures. She was treated for this about a year and a half.
Susie had a neighbor friend, June that she rode horses with. They were riding down the road and the horse got too close to a mailbox and she got a cut on her leg. She didn't want to go to the doctor and have stitches, so she was going to try to sew it up herself. Since that didn't work, she ended up having to get stitches anyway.
She was not interested in sewing or cooking, but liked being outside, climbing trees and riding horses.