Looking at B. D. you would never know her strength. If you were generous you could say she was five feet tall, her face wrapped in leathery skin, and pepper gray hair sitting rather untamed on her head. Do not be mistaken, though, for B. D. has endured many hardships and has overcome them all. She is part Mexican, part Apache, and the mother of seventeen children, and one stepdaughter. She was the wife to a World War II Veteran, and the sole caregiver for a daughter paralyzed by spina bifida. At the age of eighty two B. D. is still very cognizant.
Life Story B. D. was born in El Paso, Texas in 1927, to a ranching family of eight. Her father was Apache and her mother was Mexican. She tells, rather affectionately, of her
Both her husband and daughter were released to her and she was now required to be the sole caretaker for two invalids. B. D. administered physical therapy for both husband and daughter and had to teach her husband how to walk and speak again--he was paralyzed on the right side of his body. Her daughter required physical therapy to learn how to walk. B. D. initially employed the use of large braces for her daughter's legs, which would eventually result in the dislocation of her legs. B. D.'s daughter would become a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair and her mother's care for the rest of her life. B. D. was responsible for learning about catheters and enemas. It was through these experiences that she learned about post operative and post cardiac/stroke recoveries. This did not stop B. D., though. She still continued to run the ranch, provide for all of her children, and--when her husband recovered--she had more children. B. D. was a strong, stern woman, and she had to be. She was responsible for a lot of people and "had a no b.s. policy." She was very strict on her children and did not have a lot of time to be dealing with their shenanigans. As she grew older she began to realize the value of a woman. This was an interesting transition that really shook the very core of the person she was. All her life she believed that the man had a greater value than the woman and it was the woman's job to care for the man. But