It was customary in the late 1940s to keep the mother and newborn child in the hospital for a few days just to ensure that no postpartum problems occurred, and when the word came from Gary that Betty was still bleeding it wasn’t of too much concern. Her doctors assured us that the baby was fine and that Betty would be able to return home in a few days. Marie camped out at the hospital and wouldn’t leave her daughter’s side, and Grant was off at the farm so of course it was her place to be there.

It wasn’t until the third straight day of continuous hemorrhaging that Marie began to sense that something was horribly wrong. Betty was losing strength and getting very pale, and the baby was needing to nurse. It all happened so fast. One minute the doctors were saying Betty was fine, the next they began speaking in hushed tones and the nurses faces were turning grim.

On the morning of the fourth day, the head nurse along with the pediatrician called the family into the waiting room to announce that Betty was going to require surgery to try and stop the bleeding. A specialist was being brought in from New Orleans and as soon as he arrived he would operate on Betty.