Anitiyah!

New apartment, Leadville, and a long stairway out the back for the kids to go in and out. Three kids in one bedroom, the oldest was 4, next 2, and the two week old baby. I don't know how we managed to stack everything up in that three room apartment, but we did. The oldest girl was starting to have some temper flares that involved almost having some kind of fit like a seizure. The middle child, son, developed asthma, and had many episodes of breathing difficulties, and the little baby was just trying to fit in and get some attention with all this upheaval. There was one hospitalization for my son with his asthma where the next day I was told they almost lost him. There was no call to us. I was alarmed by this as we certainly should have been informed. But the Dr. attending him was the one who liked breasts, so I guess I should have known. And after a couple of years I developed some symptoms that were un-diagnosible for the local doctors. I would feel fine in the early morning, but then develop nausea, and back pain through the day. They used ultra sound on my back, 'to break up the focal point of pain', and then they clearly decided I was a hypochondriac as they kept telling me I was pregnant. I protested and mentioned that there did not seem to be a new baby. There were two doctors, one was distant and uninterested, and the other was too interested, kept wanting to examine my breasts and would. He would never have a nurse with him, and I should have suspected something. I was naive, and sick, and just wanted help. He also used to follow my car if he crossed my path. I should have reported him to someone, but I just felt too tired and ill.

Finally I wrote home to our family friend and our doctor of many years. I was so sick, that I wrote the bare symptoms which gave my family doctor and idea and he wrote back and told me to get home immediately or go see a colleague of his in Colorado Springs. I got an appointment right away with the colleague, and under great distress, considering the children, and my husband's job, and trying to figure out how to handle all of this, I got a diagnosis of a kidney problem called a fallen kidney. No wonder I was so sick. I was booked for surgery in about 2 weeks, my Mother came out to take care of the children, and I expected to lose a kidney. ( My husband would come down on weekends to visit, and stay with a friend from my college days. Husband would tell me about strange magazines and books that my friend had lying around. I had to giggle as I knew my friend was gay. ) The doctor decided that my kidney looked good enough to try and save, and tied it up to my ribs. I still have the kidney even though it was a long haul to heal and feel better and for years I would get infections very easily. I had lost a lot of weight, and the kids had more upheaval. Before the time of this event, we had managed to find a Lot NW of town and had a manufactured home put on it for 'our place'. We had 5 acres, I think, of woods around us, our own well, and electricity into the Lot, and wonderful deck looking out into the woods.

There were good times, hikes in the mountains, our yard to play in, learning to ski. But my life was crumbling. I decided to try working again. I was a window dresser for J. C. Penney's, and then got a job teaching skiing up at the local ski area. I earned enough to buy a little Saab 2 stroke car. Zoom I called it. The kids could go to the area with me, ski, and then play in the day care with the other kids. My husband was a ski patroller at another area most weekends, and in the summer he was off climbing mountains. I began to wander. I would take the kids on trips into the mountains with a lunch, and we would explore. Or we would stay at home and amuse ourselves. The oldest went to school, walking a pretty long way until they finally got a bus going for our area. I would walk her through the woods to the next street over, and my son would keep an eye on the baby. Lots of times I would come back and Aniy would be crawling around the house. It took some time figuring out how this could happen, me suspecting my son of her liberation. She had found a loose bar in her play pen. She just pushed it aside and crawled out, and my son did not see it happen. My oldest daughter would walk home and bring me flowers that she said she found in the woods, but I am sure she found in peoples yards. We would discuss the propriety of this, but the lecture would not last.

I will continue this story concerning the further breakdown of my ability to maintain a place in my first marriage. To be continued!