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Show Grove (also called Battle Creek), some 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. Although Ellis was five years old at the time, little mention is made of her experiences on the long trek. While the journey may not have served to inure her, at that tender age, to hardship, we may wonder what effect it had upon the ultimate shaping of her character, occurring as it did at a most impressionable season. One of Ellis' earliest recollections was of being in the arms of a great grandfather and thinking he was "gray grandpa" because his beard was gray. Her grandfather, whom she loved most dearly throughout her life, shared in a vital experience which she was later told about in this manner: At one point in her infancy, when everyone thought she had drawn her last breath, her grandfather was summoned from his outside work. "He caught me up from my dear Mother's clinging arms and carried me out in the air, swinging me up and down, calling me over and over by name, shaking me. ..exclaiming, 'Ellis, we will not let you die, you must live!'" The cause of the breath stoppage was an overdose of an opiate-type medicine administered by a doctor. Learning of this incident must certainly have enhanced an otherwise excellent relationship she had with her grandfather. This same grandfather and his sweet wife were to provide loving, caring attitudes toward Ellis in her times of greatest need, well into her adult life and, in a sense, be surrogate parents. No wonder she was full of praise for and gratitude toward them. |