Keiarah 1/16/14

The Life of a Special Person

April 21, 1947 was the day that my great aunt was born. My great grandmother was in labor for 48 hours. Due to the length of time my great grandmother was in labor the doctors had to use forceps. Forceps are a surgical instrument that resembles a pair of tongs and can be used in surgery for grabbing, maneuvering, or removing various things within or from the body. They can be used to assist the delivery of a baby as an alternative to the ventouse (vacuum extraction) method. In those days doctors used metal forceps to pull babies out by their heads. This caused an injury to my Aunts brain. That resulted in a diagnosis of mental retardation and epilepsy. The doctors told my great grandmother that my Aunt wouldn’t live pass two years of age. My great grandmother made a promise to god that if he let my Aunt live she would never drink alcohol again in her life. My Aunt had two younger sisters, one of them was my grandmother and the other was my Aunt Pennie. They lived on my great grandfathers’ farm. My Aunt was able to walk and talk even though her speech was impaired. She loved running and playing with the animals. My Aunt couldn’t go to school because in the 1950’s they didn’t let people with the disabilities like my Aunt have attend school. Everything that my Aunt knew was taught to her by my great grandmother and her two younger sisters. My Aunt went to live with her grandmother. Up until the age of twenty my Aunt was able to walk. Until one day when her grandmother came to tell her little sisters and father that my Aunt had went to the dentist and had a procedure and when she came out my Aunt was not able to walk. Even though her grandmother said that, it is still a mystery to the family, why she really can’t walk. When my Aunt was living in a board and care home her sisters came to visit her and they noticed scars on legs, but they didn’t know where they came from. From 1970-2001 my grandmother lost all contact to her. After diligently searching for her she was located in a boarding home in Dallas, Texas. My Grandmother and my Aunt Pennie went to Dallas and brought her back to California. My Aunt now lives with my grandmother, my grandfather,