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06. An Unconventional Romance
- Texas A&M University Press
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75 D.J. SCaRCeLy HaD time to be delighted by the prospect of coming home after the war before he was told some terrible news. During his discharge physical, the army doctors discovered that, besides hepatitis, he had contracted tuberculosis. immediately, D. J. received orders committing him to Fitzsimmon General Hospital in Colorado, where his TB would be treated by army doctors for the next year. after that year was up, he came home to Fort Stockton, having been ordered to “take it easy.” That order was equally easy for him to obey, since he had little energy for anything else. after six months at home, he went back to Fitzsimmon for another six months, a routine that continued for three more years until the cycle ended in 1948. Most likely, D. J. had contracted tuberculosis in the Philippines. at the time, after the severe Japanese occupation, the Philippines did not have good sanitation. neither were the Filipino people known for their personal hygiene. They expectorated on the dusty ground, and when that dust was disturbed by barefoot people, airborne diseases such as tuberculosis could and did spread easily. even though he contracted TB on active duty during the war, D. J. never received disability payments after his discharge from active army duty. The army had decided D. J. was exposed to tuberculosis during his medical residency in Baltimore, and could have caught it then. That was not true, but D. J. was philosophical about their decision. He said the disability payments did not matter to him since he could 6 a An Unconventional Romance 76 C H A p T e R 6 always make a good living as a doctor, provided he survived! D. J. was not only suffering from active tuberculosis, but his father was diagnosed with active leukemia. Dr. Sibley had the lingering form of the disease that some elderly people contracted, and he endured it for at least five more years. To make matters worse, D. J.’s father was profoundly deaf. at sixty-six, after years of ranching, practicing dentistry, saving, buying, and selling, he became terribly ill and could no longer enjoy his life fully. His wife, effie, must have been very lonely. Dr. Sibley had been growing increasingly deaf for twenty years, so her ability to talk with him became minimal. now that they had sold the hotel and finally had some free time to spend together, his health was failing and he could not hear a word she said. He bought hearing aids, but in those days they were pretty much junk. One of my mother’s friends carried hers in her purse, where she reported it did her as much good in there as in her ears. She also hated all that squeaking they used to make. in 1946, while taking his father for an examination at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, D. J. came through Dallas. We arranged to go out one evening to attend the ballet. Because he was eleven years older, i had never really thought much about him, nor had i ever spent any time alone with him. eleven years’ difference in age is a lot when you are in high school. Besides, D. J. had also been away for four years during the war. although i had never had a date with him, i really was looking forward to getting to know him better. Perhaps strangely, that he was a TB patient at the time of our first date did not faze me. On our first outing D. J. even brought along his new puppy—a dachshund. How that man loved his dogs! i had a fur coat, a mink-dyed muskrat that looked pretty darned good, especially to his dog! That puppy just loved my fur coat. He must have thought he D. J.’s 1937 graduation photo, UT medical school [54.165.248.212] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:37 GMT) 77 A N U N C O N v e N T I O N A l R O M A N C e was back with his mother, because he kept trying to suckle my coat all night. Our evening began at a party in the adolphus Hotel. The head of my art and advertising department at Sanger’s was holding a soirée for his mother, who completely dominated her son. She also tried to run the rest of the world and seemed to get by with it...