I had to ride a freight train because there was no passenger train. The conductor thought that I was making a mistake going home. I asked him, "Why was he working on a train carrying sick people back and forth." He said, "it's my duty, someone has to do it." I told him, "That was why I was going home. It was my duty."

When I got there, the family doctor scolded me for coming. But my sister Eugenia was glad I came. She told me that father had gone about his business. He had been making caskets for the deceased and helping when he could with the sick.

Then mother took sick. An Irish lady was sent by the Howard Association to care for her. My baby brother Stanley was removed from my mother, who was nursing him at the time. However, mother became even sicker. Father came home to look after her, but he caught the fever and died the day before my mother did.