Survivors

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Patricia Franklin

If you have time, please watch this video first. 

DiVoran

During our elementary school years, my friend Patricia and I both lived with our families in Westcliffe, a small town at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in the Wet Mountain Valley. The town had a two-block downtown and a century-old elementary school that held first grade through sixth, with the seventh and eighth graders in a small annex attached to the back of the school. Except for electricity and motorcars, the town was much like a pioneer town, especially when it came to health. 

Patricia 

When we were in elementary school, we got mumps, measles, chickenpox, and many colds (viruses, I guess).  I don’t think we even went to the doctor for these ailments.  We went to school, caught the illness, and stayed home until we were better.  I remember in 5th grade; my cousin came to school with chickenpox.  I sat next to her during a project, noticed her little bumps, and figured I would get it.  I was a little scared, but not much.  When my brothers and I caught it, Mom gave us warm baths with baking soda in the water.  It really helped the itching. Nobody made a big deal about any of it. I remember hearing about polio when they had it in another town.  People from Westcliffe stayed away from there. 

DiVoran

My brother David and I got chickenpox, and since mother and dad were just a phone call or two blocks away taking care of the restaurant, they let us stay at home on our own for the two weeks of quarantine.  Believe it or not, there was no crime in our small town of perhaps 400 people. We had a big shaggy dog named Brownie as a baby-sitter.  We played with our ranch and doll toys, listened to the radio, played records from WW1, ran around the house, ate what we wanted, and had a great two weeks. We didn’t tear anything up or make any messes that we didn’t clean up. I don’t recall fighting much.  I did try to read a children’s self-help book to David. I thought he needed it, but he didn’t seem interested. I don’t remember us having any doctors in Westcliffe or even any nurses. We did have our beloved pharmacist, Cope. We should have called him Mr. Cope, but we dropped the formalities with our friend who gave us comic books with no covers and in later years let us babysit his children. As I recall, no child in our grammar school died from any illness.

Patricia

We did have doctors in Westcliffe at times. If you got sick, the doctor would come to your house.  I remember going to the doctor’s office once or twice as a child.  I don’t think we had doctors all the time, or maybe they came from Pueblo or Canon occasionally, like the dentist did once a month.  

DiVoran 

So, worse things have happened than this Covid 19. More people survive than don’t. The other terrible things that were happening finally went away. And I guess I’d have to say a lot of changes, good and bad, occurred. I’d also have to say that God loves us and is always with us come what may. 

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

Tags: 1900, Perspective, Spanish Flu, Wars