The Autobiography of Ruth Tagg Caley

John Thomas CaleyBy Marjorie Caley GaarsoeDad's father went to Australia with his father after his mother died in England. He was acoal miner. He went to Ballarat to mine gold. He was there when they had the Eureka Battle.Life in the gold fields was very harsh. They lived in tents. Ballarat was very small. My dadlived on a hill just outside of town. It was called Sego Hill. It ws only a couple of miles, notvery far at all. In the town there was a small lake. When I was there it had a lot of beautifulblack swans on it. My father was crippled at a very early age. I have heard 2 different ways and Iam not sure which is right. One version was that one of his baby sitters dropped him and theother version is that he had polio. Maybe both are correct. Anyway one leg was shorter than theother was. I loved him so much and I wanted to be just like him. I would walk behind him andtry to walk just like him. Mom got very angry with me and told me not to do it any more. Dadwould ask her what was wrong and she wouldn't tell him. I finally outgrew that stage. MyFather was the oldest in the family. He was 18 when his father died. He helped his mother raisethe rest of the family. He would work and give his mother some of the money.He joined the church in Australia and came to America for his religion. He continued tosend money home to his mother until the time of his marriage to mom. He had no money savedbecause of his commitment to help the family. He was intelligent and studious. He studied thescriptures and loved to debate with some of his friends about what they meant. You might evensay that he liked to argue. He was very strict about being reverent in church and used to get afterthe kids that weren't being reverent. He was sick a lot of the time I was growing up and I canremember him being in the hospital when I was 6 or 7 years old and everyone thought that hewas going to die. I would sit in the hallway waiting for mom to come out from visiting with him.It seemed like hours. Once in a while the nurses would sneak me in to see him. I am not surewhat was wrong, but he looked bloated. His stomach was higher than a full term pregnant lady.He didn't die that time. He had phlebitis, which is inflammation of a vein often accompanied byclot formation. It was in his feet and he was unable to walk. He used to scoot on his bottom toget to the bathroom. To keep his feet warm he use to put an electric light bulb in a box on hisfeet.He died when I was 13 years old. It was about 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon while I wasin school. He had been sitting outside on the front porch, which was a usual occurrence. Momtalked him into going inside so she could take car of him. She called an ambulance and they tookhim to the hospital where he died. When I came home from school that day in September theneighbor lady told me before my mom had a chance. That night was one of the worst nights inmy life. I stayed with my girlfriend that night and mom went to stay with the Eberts. I shouldhave gone with her but I didn't realize what she was going through nor what I would be goingthrough. I went to school the next day. At the funeral aunt Jean told me that I should touch dad.I did and wished that I hadn't. I t haunted me for a long time. The smell of the powder was onmy hands and several times after that I smelled it. One day while I was at the school I smelled itand felt that dad was there with me. Years later when I was in high school I was at home withRuth Tagg Caley pg 66