The Autobiography of Ruth Tagg Caley

One Saturday he had to work for a few hours in the morning and after that they would betogether for their date. Oh how happy life seemed for them. He watched the hands of the clock.It was almost 9 30 a.m. Another hour or two and he would be meeting her. At nine-thirty he feltnauseated and went for the wastebasket. They took him to the rest room, but in less than onehour Jiggs was dead. He had a blood clot and it hit his heart. My phone in Orem rang and hisfather asked me if I had heard the news. I was shocked to know our friend who was so faithful,had died so suddenly, when his life seemed to be so full of happiness. I thought then every weekfrom then on I know Jiggs would be at the Temple in spirit, to meet John. People at the templeused to whisper, I wonder if they are brothers as they are always together. Jiggs did not forget us.As later on his name shall be mentioned again in my story.Our son John got a job after school working in a green house for 35c an hour. David hada paper route for awhile. They used to go roller skating quite a bit. I remember David surprisedme one evening after he got home from his paper route. He had won a box of chocolates fromthe paper company for selling more than the other boys. He gave it to me. That touched me verydeeply to think he remembered his mother and thought of someone else instead of himself. Itwas not the candy, but the act of giving. Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, makes theearth our heaven, as the saying goes.One night do we all well remember our two boys had taken the car and went the backroad to the show. Husband John had just started to bed and I was half undressed when the phonerang. A man's voice said, “Mrs. Caley, I'm over here at your neighbor's house. I don't want toalarm you but we had a call to say your husband has been seriously hurt in an automobileaccident.” I said impossible, he is here in bed and is well. Then I thought Oh my! Perhaps it isthe boys? I hurried and got dressed and so did John. But the mortuary man assured us that ourboys were ok. The ambulance was just outside the neighbors house when Mr. and Mrs. H droveup. The family had been out and left their children home. The mortuary men said when theycame around the corner they noticed that the house lights kept going on and off. The telephoneoperator traced the call to our neighbors. The kids had put in this emergency call and had got themortuary men out of a meeting six miles away. Usually they charge $20.00 for a call like that.Those kids thought they were playing a joke on me as there was no car in the yard. Thejoke back-fired as soon after, the police went over to school and called them out of class whichwas very embarrassing to their parents. These same boys used to take a tall cement road markerand roll it out in the middle of the road, so the cars would have to drive around it. They wouldput it out after dark. Anyone could have had an accident coming home from work at midnightlike the neighbor, or my husband. It was the neighbor, Mr. G., who called the police. But theHealy's thought it was John and blamed him for it. Those same boys used to sit high up in theapple trees and throw green apples at everybody and everything they broke. Mr. G's window infront of his living room.To be continued. This is to year 1945.Continued Story of My Life Starting in the Year of 1945Ruth Tagg Caley pg 43