Journal of Mary Phyllis Fisher - Thomas Davies

came out for the first time. I came with Mr. Redford in the mail truck. I held Sara on my lap.
We went around by Mt. View. I was so tired. I can still close my eyes when I think of it and
feel tired. After Ellen was born I came back home on the train. It was another tiring ride. Ren
and the children met me at the train.
My Sister Ethel had taken care of the children while I was at the hospital. Ren had hired Lenora
for the rest of the month for which I was very grateful.
When Ellen was a month old I had three teeth pulled. They had been causing me a lot of
trouble. My blood was so thin they bled and bled. Father and Ren administered to me but we
couldn’t get them to stop bleeding. Ren phoned the Doctor and he said to wash my mouth with
strong alum water and we got it stopped. But I was so weak and tired I just didn’t have any
milk. Ellen had been premature and I couldn’t get her to take a bottle. She would cry when I
tried to put it in her mouth. She weighed just about the same when she was six months as when
she was three so I had to wean her from the breast and starve her into taking the bottle. She
didn’t like milk very much and has been so tiny always. The children just about loved her to
death.
My big ambition right now is to get Sara and Danny and Lore to stop sucking their thumbs.
When Sara was 4 years old, not long after Ellen was born, I said to Sara, “Why don’t you stop
sucking your thumb?” and she said “I wish I was like other girls and didn’t suck my thumb.” I
said, “Sara you could stop sucking it, if you just make up your mind you’d never suck it again
and then you’d be like other girls.” And she said, “Mother I’ll never suck my thumb again.”
And she never did. Every day I gave her and Danny a penny and they went to the store and
bought a penny gum. They chewed it day and night. It was harder for Danny but when he saw
Sara had really stopped he stopped too. It was not so with Lore. He just didn’t want gum or
candy or the penny. He’d rather have his thumb.
1937 Ren got a second hand truck [he sold his horses] and for a number of years he did
general trucking, hauling grain, hay, coal, poles, lumber etc. He went up into the mountains and
got poles and had them sawed at the mill and we began building on the old church house
foundation. Laverne Davies supervised the work and Ren hauled coal and lumber and grain to
pay him. The Elders helped a day and put up the siding. The kitchen was soon plastered and
finished and we moved into it on Thanksgiving Day. I was so thankful to have a home of our
own once again.
We finished the house a little at a time during the next few years.
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A year ago Ren traded a cow for a piano. Some of the higher notes do not play. It looks good
though. It is an old grand piano and the girls are taking lessons from Mrs. Peterson. It says in
my patriarchal blessing that the music and fine words of my children will drive the spirit of the
adversary from our home. It looked like for so long they were not going to play and sing. So I
was so proud of them on Tuesday at the festival.
Ren is such a good father. He is so good to the children. He always sees that they do what they
are told to do.
Frank was born on Feb. 12, 1941
I wanted so much to have a fine big baby. Ellen had been so tiny. Father administered to me
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