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Show 11 this was to Laura, or the amount of extra work it caused her. I could still sympathize with Mama and Grandma when I learned the truth, but my real compassion swung to Papa. The three weeks of silence coincided exactly with Grandma's stay-ten days for Mama to be in bed, and the rest for her to get her strength back from being in bed. When she got in her little black buggy and went back home to Wilier Bend, Papa got his voice back. Like Zacharias of old, he spoke in time to tell my mother what I was to be named. Not Gladys, the name she had picked out. They were already on the way to town to Fast Meeting, where the babies were blessed and given a name, so they had to hurry and pick another one. I wound up with the name of one of Papa's old sweethearts. This concession was no doubt granted to placate Papa. Probably to placate Mama, I was also allowed a second name, Lemira, after my grandmother. I was born on her birthday. Of my birth, my mother records: "August 21, 1903, our third child was born. Such a sweet, lovable sprite she was, alert and happy, active, and she always had a smile for everyone. How we loved her! She was so much joy after losing our little son we called Tommy a year before. She was always a lovable child. " The joy recorded above didn't too well match the verbal account recorded above the above, nor the recollections of Mama that I was a collicky baby, but they make better reading. I did laugh so much I |