David and Sue

My grandmother has recently been emailing me stories for me to keep for posterity, put on my Wiki, etc. Over time I’ll get them added to my Wiki. She’s sent a couple that were stories of my dad and his sisters when they were young and such, and those are good, but I asked her for more about her and my grandfather specifically. Yesterday she sent this:

I was thinking of our first date…

Dave had no car for several years on the farm. It was 1939 when we met at the Quaker work camp and he was borrowing Gene Cox’s car (husband of nurse Lindsey) to make calls etc. So he asked our workcamp counsellors, a young couple Biff and Elsie Jackson with two young boys to take us to a nearby town one evening for a coke.

On the way I was singing some of my favorite folk songs. A Kentucky one “Down in the Valley” for example: “The valley so low, Hang your head over, hear the wind blow. Roses love sunshine, violets low dew. Angels in heaven know I love you.”

I think it was that ride that raised the idea of lifetime companions which we were both in search of.

Fast forward to 1991 when Susan and I were with a dying Dave in TMC hospital. He had been in a coma for several days and as I sang that song near his bed he gave a moan. The hearing goes last they say and I am sure he heard the down in the valley tune from that first date.

I’m a sucker for such things, but I can’t even read that without misting up.