Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

~nna Tittm 18
A. Well, it was very different than it is now. Your
not your books. You had class, but if there was an
where you were needed, the ems would be put off.
about ny basic trainfng as it goes now, with college
Of course, I wanted to go to colleg, but I couldn't
college in mind, and it [nurses traSlling] was only
I was going to take a year of post graduate course
in seveml places though. matts how I landed at C
the six years of private duty nursing, among the fl
tell you about it. If 11 j wnp quite a ways and tel
smr. I'm always kind of lomsorne on Sunday aft
kids around the neL@borhood corn in and see me
are busy and the house is empty, and this is empty and th$tts empty [points
toward other apart;mnts]. I man theylre all gone and it 4s qdet and so
forth. But the doorbell rang ad I went. There was a niOe looking gentlem
th-.. He was not too y q and not too old. Not as o d as-J ? by any -.
And he said, "Are you Miss ma Tittman?"' I said, ''1 m1.3 He sad, 'k
you knowh re?" I said, "1 don1 t remember ever having r ~ OU. t And he said,
"Would the n m Jams A. Anderson man anything to you?" I said, "Does it
mean anything to me? Come ri&t in."
Q. Who is Jams A. Anderson?
A. Well, he was IQI first obstetrical case on private duty; he was the
baby. And he was 66 years old when he cam last smr. And the baby was
born in a big old white two story fixre house out on West I Jefferson Street,
way out near Fanringdale, just this side of Farmingdale. 'He s the son of
Hemy Anderson and Lena Mmter. They were both
Now the
sad part of the case was that there was a country
patient developed-the baby was fine. He was
Ballard, a very fine man who was a farmr out
man. He and his brother and his sister; his
lived out on an adjacent farm. They're all Christian Ch people.
Q. What happened to his mther?
A. %e had phlegrmia albaddens . That is mlU leg. 1% ' s a clot that
makes the leg swell, you see. And it corns from the blooq-there's a lot
of blood when there Is a birth, you know, and then you ha* to keep it f'mm
t~aveling, if possible. They tried to dissolve it, you see, with mdication.
She lived three weeks with that leg and it was get$ing better it
seerred. And one evening, as she was sitting up in bed, s
i
e was allawed to
sit up in bed-now the baby was getting along just Mne. And the husband,
Henry--well, I left out the fact that the mther had seve a1 brothem here.
One was in the Anbruster awning business. Another was d ing sowthing
else, Julius, that was . . . And I think Rudolph was a j weler, I'm not
sure now.
But Rudolph had phoned out to how she was and so fort;
!. Whatever he
said was fumy; they were among themse23es. ut when he cam
[the husband] into the , the telephbpne was way back in
the kit &en, you know,
dining mcpsn maybe, and he