A NEW PLACE
lips. Just a piece of ice. No nurse, and about 200 beds. Nobody paid attention to you, and I’m laying there very sick. So, Goldie and my cousin Dora had come to visit me, and they carried flowers. As sick as I was, while I was laying in bed, I thought there is my chance. When the nurse will put the flowers in the vase with water, I’ll drink all that water. That’s exactly what I did. The nurse put the flowers in the vase and put it on the night table, and then she went away. I drank all the water. I don’t know how I acted, but the other patients must have seen that I’m dying. A policeman was sent to my husband. They took me down to surgery again, and when I woke up, it was the next morning. As I started to drink the water, I felt life back in me. I was still about six months pregnant. When I opened my eyes, Professor Ernst is staying near my bed. I told him, ‘You didn’t keep your promise.’ He said, ‘You are going to have a healthy baby with this pregnancy. If I would have killed that baby, it would be just like I killed you.’ I asked him who was going to take care of me since I had told him my circumstances. He promised to put me in the best hospi- tal, and that he would take care of me and I’ll send you for vacation. He sent me with Izzy for a vacation in a resort place at Willow Grove. That’s the kind of people that was years ago. [sic] And I never paid a penny. Pop used to come and see us every Sunday. I was still pregnant. I used to see the profes- sor whenever he asked me to come. Harry was born at the hospital located at 40th and Market Street. In the meantime, we didn’t make a living, and Izzy was always sick. Dr. Segal came to me at my home, 19th and Catherine Streets, and told me that I can’t raise my child there or he wouldn’t live. It was a very damp house, and it was a dump. ‘You’ll have to move out of here,’ he said. ‘You are two young people, and he’ll make a living for you, because he has a trade,’ pointing to Frank.”
Dora Shooster - Frank went around to look for a place in West Philadelphia Station, at $40 a month. I figured we could rent out some rooms, and we would sleep downstairs to help pay the rent. We moved there, and I was expecting our second baby any minute. I started to get labor pains when we moved in. Frank took Izzy to Tanta Mary’s house and took me to the hospital Monday morning. When they took me down to the deliv- ery room, all the doctors were sitting there to watch my delivery because of the tumor they removed earlier. It made medical history due to how late I was in the pregancy when it was removed. The professor was preaching to them during my delivery. Harry was such a beautiful boy, but I had a terrible delivery. He weighed 11 pounds. They called him the little policeman. This was a hospital where the nuns worked. They knew how poor I was, but they really took care of their patients. They gave me 10 - 12 glasses of milk a day to drink and they used to pump my breasts that I shouldn’t have too much milk. But they wanted me to have the strength. I was there for about 2 1/2 weeks.
Pregnant Woman Marc Chaghall Oil on Canvas 1913
43
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease