Florence’s family life was upended when her mother announced she was pregnant at age 46. Betty Marie was clearly disabled in some way, and her sister’s birth and life was to become one of the most painful experiences of Florence’s young life. As always, she rose to the crisis and went to work helping her family. In keeping with the tradition of the time, Florence never explicitly says what illness her sister suffered from, she only said she was “slow.” Betty Marie’s birth was to change Florence’s life.

“Many times I wished for a little sister, thinking how nice it would be. As I got older, I forgot about a little sister but there were unforeseen events. Mother came upstairs one morning, woke me to tell me she was going to the hospital. I said for heaven sakes, what for. The answer – a baby. The shock stunned me. Mother was forty six and I could not believe what she was telling me. Mother had not told anyone. That day, Betty Marie was born. History has repeated itself as Grandmother Dillon had Raymond my uncle about the time Ralph was born. Only Grandmother died a week later.

  Betty was a beautiful baby looking just like Mom. After the shock I got things ready for the baby as best I could. Mother had a vary hard delivery and never seemed well after that.  When she came home I took over as best I could so Mother could get as much rest as she could. Everything seemed O.K. with the baby until time for Betty to talk, she learned, Mom and Daddy also Bye Bye. At the age of two Betty had pneumonia. The doctor said don’t let her cry for a minute. We took turns walking day and night. We played records all night, she liked music and that seemed to quiet her. We played the records over and over, not taking time to change them. In due time she got better, but when we would out she had bad tonsils and at the age of three, down to Troy to a specialist she went. After having them out, we expected she would soon pick up on her talking. She learned names and talked some very slow. Betty was never able to to go school. I stayed home to help Mom with her. She understand everything we said to her but could not express itself.”

Next: The heartbreaking story of Betty Marie was far from over.