BACK HOME WITH MAMA We were only married about 11 months before John had to leave for six months, which was the worst thing about him serving in the Navy. He was gone a lot. That’s why he didn’t want me to have a job while we were married, so he could see me when he was at home. Mama and daddy drove up to Norfolk to get me and bring me back to Chickasaw while he was away. I went back to work for the hospital again, and was happy to be back in my old, familiar environment that I enjoyed. I worked nights, setting up for the day shift’s first cases. Then I’d come home in the morning ready to go to sleep. Mama would always be sitting there in the kitchen waiting for me to come home. She was so happy for me to stay with her those months! I’d tell her everything that was going on at the hospital – she loved getting the story on everything – and we’d talk and talk, and Minnie Mae would come over and we’d all three of us be talking and laughing. I’d say, “I have to get some sleep!” But I loved those months back with my mama, too.
November 1953