“Just the last couple of days. It’s been so hot, and I’ve been canning string beans – oh, and making jam too. It goes away at night.”
“How about if Freda comes to finish your canning and you knit sweaters or something instead?”
“Astrid, I have four children to take care of and – ”
“And Freda or Helga don’t know how to do that?” Astrid beckoned to Deborah. “See how her ankles are swelling? As a nurse, that is something to look for in pregnant patients. While in the summer the heat and humidity might contribute to the swelling, it can be a sign of possible problems. I think nurses will play a larger part in caring for pregnant patients. At least at our hospital they will.”
Sophie and Grace clapped their hands. “Bravo, Dr. Bjorklund.” Astrid shook her head. “I get no respect here, and you wonder why I feel as if I am playing doctor?” She looked over at Rebecca, who was reclining on the sofa. “Go over and check her out. Tell me what you find.”
Deborah did as she was told, making a joke about free medical care. “Your ankles are swelling a bit too. Is this an epidemic, or what?”
“No, the typhoid was, or could have been, an epidemic. This is pregnancies and hot, humid weather. Well, not as hot as before the rainstorm yesterday, but it’s still a steam bath today.” Astrid brushed a hank of hair off her cheek.
After Deborah gave her report, Sophie clapped her hands. “Enough medical stuff. Let’s eat and drink and be merry.”
“I think that refers to another kind of drinking,” Grace said and signed.
“You know what I mean.” Sophie stood and bowed. “Supper is served, my friends. Help yourselves and then bring your plates back in here.”
Deborah interrupted her. “You sit. We will fill plates for our pregnant people, and if you don’t like what we bring, oh well.” The face she made brought laughter from all.
Once their plates were full and they were gathered in the parlor again, Sophie started the discussion. “We have three married women, one engaged, and two who are still not attached. I think we need to talk about this to figure out how we can help the two not yet attached.”
“You can help best by not helping at all,” Astrid offered.
“Okay, then let’s begin with you.” Sophie pointed to a chair she had moved into the center of the somewhat circle. “Sit.”
“I’m not going to sit in the middle like that so you can all stare at me.”
“Sit. Sit. Sit.” The chorus made her roll her eyes, but she sat, taking a forkful of salad at the same time.
“Now, I thought there was a budding romance going on here between you and Joshua Landsverk. When he sings, my heart goes pitty-pat.” Sophie patted her chest. “Well?”
Astrid’s smile disappeared. “There was. I broke it off.”
“My land, why? He’s handsome, charming, building a house for his wife – ”
“And he cannot deal with his wife being a doctor who puts her patients before her family.”
“Oh, Astrid, I’m so sorry.” Grace came and knelt at Astrid’s knees, taking her cousin’s hand. “But it is better to see that now than to live a miserable life together.”
“I came to understand that. But he was not happy when I told him again.”
“Again?”
Astrid nodded, swallowing against the lump growing in her throat. “I pray that God has the perfect woman for him and they will be as happy as can be.”
“We have to find a husband for Astrid. That is all there is to it.” Sophie arranged her bulk and settled down on the floor next to Grace.
“It worked for me,” Maydell said, sitting next to Grace. “Gus still blushes when I remind him.”
A chuckle grew contagious.
“There are not many marriageable men in town,” Rebecca said, moving to the edge of the seat. “Either you bring the party over here to me or we move this thing closer to the party.”
They rearranged the room so they could be closer together. “This is more like it used to be when we put our pallets in a circle and brushed each other’s hair.”
“Back to Astrid.”
“What about Deborah?” Astrid asked, hoping to take the attention off her.
“She’s next.”
“Oh, wonderful.” Deborah drew her knees up under her skirt and wrapped her arms around her knees. “We can solve that in one sentence. I am going to be an old maid nurse who takes care of all the women in the family way at our hospital.”
“I thought you kind of liked Toby,” Grace said.
“He’s a friend, is all.” Deborah’s cheeks pinked.
Sophie leaned forward. “Is that red on your face? Deborah, you have never in all our lives been able to tell a lie. You are interested in Toby Valders.”
“Sophie, for – ”
“Look at her. Am I right or am I right?”
Deborah covered her telltale cheeks with her hands and ducked her head. “But he isn’t interested in me.” The last word turned into a small wail.
Astrid chuckled as she saw her cousin switch into full-out matchmaking mode.
“Then it is time he comes to reality. He for you and you for he.” She waved her hands. “See, tonight I am even a poet. Did you catch that?”
Groans spoke admissions.
“You better watch out, Deborah, Astrid. When our Sophie goes on the attack, you have not a chance. Or rather, the man in question has no chance.”
“Speaking from true experience, Rebecca?”
“That’s for sure. Although, perhaps Gerald would have come around in time.” She blushed. “But I’m glad you speeded things up.”
“Good.” Sophie propped her hands on her knees. “So how do we do this, ladies?” She looked over her shoulder. “And don’t you think you are off the hook either, cousin. The night is just beginning.”
“I think Daniel Jeffers is an interesting man,” Rebecca said. “Don’t you, Astrid?”
“He’s a very nice man.”
“He takes such good care of his mother, and yet he is not a mama’s boy.” Sophie contemplated Astrid. “That’s an interesting thought.”
Astrid rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Soph. I am just not interested in any man right now. I need time to get over the debacle of before.”
“We shall see.”
25
“Why is Haakan’s being gone bothering me so much this year?” Ingeborg asked, gazing out on Saturday from her seat on the porch.
Kaaren shook her head. “Perhaps because we are getting older. I feel the same with Lars, and he didn’t spend weeks down on the reservation.”
“He went down earlier.”
“I know, but for you these two things are closer together. Haakan wasn’t home that long before he left again.” Kaaren picked up the nursing manual they had been studying. “We need to pick and choose what is most important for our Indian women to learn. After all, if Dr. Red Hawk is to be here for the dedication, we don’t have much time.”
Ingeborg shook her head. How could it be nearly the end of August already? She felt more behind every day, and yet it wasn’t that she wasn’t busy. With the corn ripening, she’d been canning that, as well as drying corn that she’d cut off the cob and spread on screens. And that really had to be dry. One year she’d tried to hurry the drying process and ended up with mold, losing the entire batch. Now she stored it in smaller tins. It was safer that way.
“They’ve learned to apply dressings, recognize some illnesses, listen to the heart and lungs.” Kaaren smiled at Ingeborg. “The day they were listening to each other’s chests – it was all I could do not to burst out laughing.”
“Me too. When Gray Smoke did me, she couldn’t even look me in the eye. As if she were invading me or something.” Ingeborg chuckled. “We need to find some non-healthy hearts and lungs for them to listen to, so they can learn the difference. I also think Deborah should be sent to Grand Forks for schooling. She has a real affinity for nursing.”
“Let’s face it, Deborah c
an do whatever she sets her mind to. People don’t realize what a bright young woman she is, because she is always just doing whatever is asked. She did great on the switchboard, she’s worked at the boardinghouse, she’s taken care of mothers and newly birthed babies . . . she’s helped out wherever she was needed. I can just see her running that hospital.”
Ingeborg stared at her dearest friend, whom she still considered her sister, even though both of their first husbands – brothers – had died. “I never thought of that. Of course. We need to mention that to Elizabeth and Astrid. I know they are starting to think of staffing.”
“You and I just never get much time to talk anymore. I’ll be glad when quilting starts, so we can visit on the way over and back.” She flipped through some more pages. “I taught the women how to treat croup, and you did burns. Do you want to do a day on stitching wounds closed?”
“The doctors would do that, rather than the nurses.”
“But in an emergency?”
“True. I’ll do that one this week, then.” Ingeborg thought for a moment. “What are we going to do when your deaf students start returning next week?”
“I was thinking our nurses in training could have the room that Ilse and George used to have. Now that they have a house, I’ve used their room for storage or for overflow students.” She heaved a sigh.
“I cannot tell you how happy I am to have Grace home again. Getting the new students up to signing well enough to enter the regular school will make things easier.”
“How many new ones do you have coming?”
“Ten. It is a shame how many people are hidden away because they can’t hear and families don’t know what to do, other than treat them as animals. I have three boys coming in who have never had any kind of training, so we will start from the very basics. George is such a help with children like that.” George McBride had come to the school as a student in the early days and, after marrying Ilse, Kaaren’s assistant, stayed on to teach woodworking and other necessary farming skills that did not demand that the worker needed to talk well.
“Grace will take the others?”
“We all will, but we should be able to give more one-on-one help now. And Grace has new techniques to teach us, things they have studied and learned at the larger schools.”
“All right. This week we will go over bed care again, dressings, and sepsis. And I’ll ask Astrid if she will come to help us teach a class on birthing. We could invite Sophie and maybe Rebecca to join us too. That way they’ll be able to listen to the baby’s heart and see the progress.” Ingeborg wrote some notes on her paper. “I’m sure both of our Indian women have helped birth babies in the past, so only Deborah will be completely new with it.”
“Marvelous. Here we are teaching birthing to an unmarried young woman who isn’t supposed to know anything about birthing or what leads up to it.”
“What do nursing schools do in this situation?” Ingeborg wondered aloud.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know either. I got all my training during the action. I remember Mor leaving home in the middle of the night after a man came pounding on the door. I guess I got my love of things medical from her. We became midwives and nurses out of sheer necessity.”
“Oh – tomorrow Mrs. Jeffers is coming out with Deborah,” Kaaren said, “so she will be teaching English during our review.”
“Good. Do you want a cup of coffee as bad as I do?” At the nod Ingeborg rose and went inside to the kitchen, bringing back coffee, cups, and a plate of cookies. “Try these icebox cookies, a new recipe Freda found and tried. Inga says they need to be sweeter, but then again, Inga wants absolutely everything sweeter.”
On Monday morning, Ingeborg pulled Deborah aside. “Something has been bothering me, and I decided I’d better let you make your own decision. You know that today we are starting on birthing.” Deborah nodded. “Since you are not married, this is not really proper for you to hear and learn.” Ingeborg finished in a rush. “We could be seriously criticized for allowing you to continue.”
“I understand,” Deborah said but then shook her head. “But remember, I grew up on a farm, and I know a lot about reproduction and birthing. After Zeb left, I helped with calves and lambs, puppies and kittens. One day when Manda was raising and training horses, she made me help with one of the mares when she was having trouble with the stallion. Granted, I’m not married, but I’m serious about wanting to be a nurse. I say we proceed as we planned and ignore anyone who thinks they are the last word on what is proper.”
Ingeborg rolled her eyes. They both knew whom they were talking about but kept from naming her. Besides, this could offend some of the other women too. And the men, for that matter. While strictures regarding proper behavior were much weaker there in Blessing, still, some things were going beyond the permissible. And this would be one of them.
Later in the morning, when Gray Smoke put a stethoscope on Rebecca’s expanding middle, her eyes sparkled, and she listened again. First to the baby’s heart, then to Rebecca’s.
“Fast. Beat fast.” Gray Smoke patted Rebecca’s shoulder. “You hear?”
Rebecca smiled and nodded. “Astrid has let me listen. I really do have a baby in there.”
Next they listened to Sophie’s heart and her baby’s. Their eyes widened.
“Big baby.”
“A rapidly growing baby. When is your baby due?” Kaaren asked.
“Early September.” Sophie sat up when Kaaren offered her a hand. “I seem to be awfully big, but then, compared to the twins . . .” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t compare.”
“You aren’t unduly large. You should have seen Kaaren when she was carrying the twins. She was even bigger than you were, Sophie.” Ingeborg chuckled at the memory.
“I needed a wheelbarrow to carry my front. I didn’t walk, I waddled, and as little of that as possible. At least that wasn’t my first, so I had some idea of what to expect.”
“The girls were the first twins I ever helped with. One baby is always so exciting, but two! Sophie was born first, squalling like we’d beat her. Grace was so still, I was concerned for her at first. But she nursed and grew well. She just couldn’t hear.” Ingeborg helped Sophie back into her dress. “Good thing we made this gown with lots of room. There’s not much more to let out.”
With the students grouped around her, Ingeborg held up the drawings they had found in one of Astrid’s medical books. They talked about how a baby grew and what happened during the birthing. Gray Smoke and Shy Fawn had both assisted women in their tribe, but they didn’t have the English skills to describe their experiences. Still, they nodded often.
When Mrs. Jeffers arrived, she taught the Indian women the words they needed to learn, and they repeated them after her. When she asked what the Sioux words were and repeated what they said, the women giggled but encouraged her. Both Kaaren and Ingeborg joined in, and while Deborah knew some Sioux words, thanks to her brother-in-law, Baptiste, they certainly weren’t medical terms.
“I am making a Sioux-English dictionary as we go along,” Mrs. Jeffers said. “Perhaps, Astrid, you could ask Dr. Red Hawk to provide the necessary words.”
“That’s a very good idea. Why didn’t I think of it earlier?”
“I’d guess because your mind has been on a few other things. I’m sure there must be a dictionary like this somewhere, but probably not a medical one. Maybe he would know where we could get that too.”
“I should have asked Mr. Moore, the Indian agent down on the reservation.” Astrid often wished she’d pushed harder for Mrs. Moore to come to Blessing to have her baby. Working with these two delightful women might have helped her overcome her aversion to Indians. She resolved to get a letter off that evening – two, in fact. One to Dr. Red Hawk and one to the Moores.
After dinner when Ingeborg and the others went home, Ingeborg headed out to the garden to pick and shuck corn again. She shucked it as she picked, leaving the husks on the soil to help k
eep the weeds down. Metiz had taught her to bury the fish heads and innards along the garden rows and return everything back into the garden to enrich the soil. Much went to the pigs and chickens too, and then their manure was dug into the ground, making the garden soil rich and friable, not tending to solid chunks like much of the fields. Good farmers that they were, Lars and Haakan took all the cow manure and bedding from the winter in the barn and spread it back on the soil too.
The only thing they burned was the thistles everyone pulled as soon as they saw them. Thistles left to go to seed could take over the land in no time.
With a bucket of golden cobs of corn, she returned to the porch and, after using a brush to remove all the silk, started cutting off the kernels. Corn milk spattered her apron, her face, her arms, and half the porch, but at least not the kitchen.
“Yoo-hoo. I brought out your mail.”
“Back here on the porch.” Surely it couldn’t be Mrs. Valders, but that voice could belong to none other. Ingeborg brushed off her hands. “Mrs. Valders, how good of you to bring it out.”
“I haven’t seen you for too long, and I really needed a walk.” The woman’s face glowed red in spite of her wide-brimmed straw hat. “I didn’t realize how warm it was today.” She handed Ingeborg a packet of mail. “I thought you’d want the letter right away.”
“It’s from Haakan. Oh, my dear Hildegunn, thank you so much. Can you sit down for a bit? I have cold drinks in the icebox, or the coffee could be hot in a jiffy.”
“Oh, cold drinks for certain. You are cutting corn, eh?”
“Yes, I’m canning some, but corn takes so long that I dry a lot too.” She set the precious letter down and fetched the pitcher. “You know what I found in a magazine? A receipt for a drink that goes way back to Colonial times. It’s called a shrub, and it is so like our swizzles that I had to laugh. I went ahead and made it. See if you can tell the difference.”
She poured the glasses. “Out on the porch is much cooler, since I have to keep the canner boiling. How are you coming with all your garden produce and running the post office too? I don’t know how you do it.”
A Heart for Home Page 22