Frontier Medecine, Trials, and Cancer

Those of us who enjoy historical fiction are also very thankful that we don't actually live "in the good old days," and one of the reasons is modern medecine. I remember the day when my children were learning Nebraska history and I told them that, if we lived in the late 1800s, only one of them would be alive. Three of the four darlings pictured at the right back in our home-schooling days would have been lost to illnesses that, today, are honestly "no big deal," thanks to that gooey pink stuff called Amoxicillin and 'wondermous' things like IV antibiotics.

My heart has mourned with pioneer mothers. I've shed real tears over words like these, "our little daughter was taken from us. I had borne all, or tried to, without murmuring until now. This trial, this great sorrow. How could I bear it?"

In the writing of Sixteen Brides, I was challenged to find bona fide treatment for a compound fracture that wouldn't require amputation. Happily, I was able to find a "new" treatment documented in a German medical paper from the era that allowed rancher Lucas Gray to keep his leg. But that was the exception rather than "the rule" back then.

Over a century has passed since the days my imaginary friends inhabit, and so many more sick people survive than they did "in the good old days," but we still have to contend with disappointment when it comes to medical issues. That happened for our family back in 2001, when my husband Bob graduated to heaven after a five and a half year encounter with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Twenty-two days before Bob's departure, he taught Sunday School. His lesson that day was titled, "What God has Taught Me." Here are some of the things Bob shared. I hope they encourage you with whatever difficulty you may be facing.

"Through cancer and the process of dying, God has taught me that I am on earth to:

• Be a light to the world, revealing Jesus Christ, all that He is and all that He has done, by what I say about how I live my life. Ephesians 5:8-10

• Trust Him, His purpose in trials and suffering is for His glory and my good. 1 Corinthisans 6:20, John 16:14, Romans 8:28.

• Conform to the character of His Son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthiasn 3:18; Philippians 3:21; Romand 8:29-30)

• Be shaped. Trials and difficult circumstances are tools in the hand of God used over time to shape me into His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 1:29-30, 3:10; John 16:33, 15:2; James 1:2-4; Galatians 5:22.

• Prove my faith in Him. Job 23:10; Psalms 66:10

• Provide visible and genuine evidence to the world of my faith in Him through each trial. Job 23:10

• Continue trustying and obeying Him, through adversity and not grumble, murmur, or complain about it. I Corinthians 10:9,10; Philippians 2:14.

• Strengthen my faith muscles. Romans 10:17

• Develop enduring strength for greater usefulness. Hebrews 12:7-11

• Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. 2 Peter 3:18

• Learn to view adversity from God's perspective, through His Word. Philippians 3:7-11; Job 2:10, 23:10.

The pioneer woman I quoted above who lost her child and wondered how she could bear it also wrote, "I am afraid I almost rebelled against God, and still He was good. She was too frail for this hard life and He transplanted her to a fairer clime and I have since been glad it was so. She is waiting to welcome us home." Julia has been reunited with that child ... just as family and friends who know Jesus will one day be reunited with Bob Whitson.

I'm humbled and amazed by the faith that saints sometimes exhibit when life and this fallen world throw terrible things their way. But they give me hope. If they could do it ... maybe I can, too.

May you be encouraged today by pioneers and brothers in Christ who faced some of the worst ... and responded in the best way possible.

--Stephanie G.

P.S. The kids on the haystack are doing great (praise Him).........here's proof.

The Ladies Mile

When we shop we often go to a mall, where all the stores are consolidated in one place. But just like the idea of the department store (see last week's blog), the idea of creating an area especially for shopping is over 160 years old. In the late 1850's in New York City, the Ladies Mile was born. The demand for "department stores" was growing so quickly, the retailers responded by moving close together uptown. The area on Broadway and 6th Avenue between 9th and 23rd Streets, came to be called the "Ladies Mile" (it's now encompassed in the "Flatiron District".)

Remember the saying, Build it and they will come. Oh yeah. They came. In droves. An article in the New York World newspaper said that if you wrote out a listing of all the items sold at Macy's it "would reach Central Park." The article further described Macy's, saying it had "spread itself out along Fourteenth Street and Sixth Avenue until one is at a loss to tell where it begins or where it ends. It is a bazaar, a museum, a hotel, and a great fancy store all combined."
Adding to the allure were large windows showing off the merchandise. Again, we take this for granted, but "window shopping" was something new in the nineteenth century. It started with Bloomingdale's. The usual practice was to clutter up a display window with a bunch of goods available inside. But Bloomingdale's—and soon all the other stores—started decorating the windows with fewer items and more props, creating scenes and an ambiance. A lure to come inside.

Henry Collins Brown, curator of the Museum of the City of New York in 1892, said the Ladies Mile had a "champagne sparkle." Further, "All the world came to Broadway to shop, to dine, to flirt, to find amusement, and to meet acquaintances." Department stores lined the street, but there were also exclusive specialty stores like Brooks Brothers, Tiffany's, and Thorley's House of Flowers. Thorley's was the first florist to use the long white box full of long-stemmed flowers packed in tissue. The exterior of their building was also an attraction, as it was decorated top to bottom with plants and flowers.

Many of these buildings remain--repurposed as the stores moved north. You can see photos here: Ladies Mile Historic District//Nancy Moser

Books and Friends

One of my favorite places in the world is in the middle of a room lined with book shelves. The e-book craze notwithstanding (and don’t get me wrong--I think it’s a wonderful development for us all), there is nothing quite like the company of strangers who can become old friends through the simple act of reading their words.

It used to quite literally freak me out to hear from readers who said, “I feel like I know you,” mostly because I haven’t ever consciously put myself into my own books. On the other hand, I have come to realize that the thing that resonates most with me as a reader may well be the intuitive hand of the author that enables me to make an emotional connection, not just with imaginary friends, but with the “friend” who created the imaginary worlds we love to inhabit when we read. With that in mind, I suppose I could say that I count Jane Austen among my friends.

When I stand in my personal library at home (about thirty running feet of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves) and peruse the shelves, what makes me smile isn’t the books themselves as much as it is the people they represent. How about you? Do you feel a friendship kind of bond with the writers whose worlds you like to visit, even though you’ve never met them? If you were going to have one in for coffee, who would you invite?

You’ve likely never heard of the two women I’m introducing today, but because of the things they wrote, they have had a profound effect on my life:

Katie Goar Maze, author of Looking Backward, who emigrated to western Nebraska in 1883. Met by her husband at the train in Plum Creek, Katie was taken “thirty-five miles away through canyons and hills” to a sod house. When Katie’s young child died, she “could not quite understand why God had permitted our little blue-eyed boy … to be taken from us.” In 1886 a Reverend Brooker conducted meetings and Katie said, “We had come west to find a home and now we had located on the homestead, but God never slumbers or sleeps. He had His eyes on our future welfare … I had always felt the need of being a Crhistian, and I wanted to know more of the life of Jesus and His power to save and keep.” Katie and her husband were saved in those meetings, and went on to full time ministry. Katie wrote, “I think, when I am permitted to enter the pearly gates, that I shall seek out those early missionaries the first thing after greeting my Savior.” I hope to meet Katie Goar Maze soon thereafter and thank her for writing the memoir that has come to mean so much to me.

Dixie Oblinger, who knew life in a sod house as a child and grew up to be a cab-driver in 1936 Washington, D.C. She wrote of one husband (Dixie was married more times than the average woman), “I realize now that what I should have done was call his bluff, even if I had to do it with a chair wrapped around his neck.” “One more of my philosophies is, adversity is for our instruction. Gosh, but I must really be a Dumb Dora, it takes so much adversity to teach me anything.” “It seems like the good are dieing [sic] young. I’ll sure live to a ripe old age if that is the case.” And, lastly, “I live in the best country on earth and I intend to do my share to keep it the best …” As the country faced WWII, Dixie was hoping she would be allowed to enlist in the Navy as a chauffeur. “I could relieve a man around Washington and let him get behind a gun.” Who wouldn’t want to meet Dixie?

May your week be decorated with new friends you meet in books!

Do you have anyone you'd like to introduce us to?

Stephanie G.