Carrie Frances Meador

"A short story of my Grandma Hook"
by Susan Hook Johnson

When she was about 6 years old, she was playing on a woodpile that was out back of their house and she fell very hard into a piece of wood. Her leg was injured and she cried and cried, but her family didn't see how it could be that bad so they waited for several days before contacting a doctor. When he finally came to the house, her leg was infected and they discovered that she had splintered a bone in the shin area of her leg. He did surgery right there on the table to remove the splintered part and to scrape the bone.

You can imagine how painful this must have been and how primitive the surgery was compared to how things are done today. Anyway, her leg never did completely heal and she would get infection in it time and time again. I remember seeing it infected on many occasions and she would always "doctor it" herself by putting a poultice on it and then wrapping it in an elastic bandage. She also had a limp as a result of this injury, but it never really slowed her down.

She was such a hard worker and such a cheerful soul. Her laugh was infectious and her heart was a heart of gold. She worked from sunup to sundown, but always had time to visit with anyone who came to see her and usually had lots of baked goods on hand just in case she had company.