Sorrow
In 1921 while we were living on Earl William’ place Jeff decided to visit his sister Bessie Cochran at Center Point, Arkansas. While we were there was an electrical storm. Lighting struck a huge oak tree. The lightening bolt came through the board plank wall, around and down an iron bed frame. It hit my hip and tore off one of my laced boots and cut all my toes and disjointed them all except for the big toe. I was thrown to the floor and I thought, “Lord, this is the end of time.”
It hit Ella Mae who was four years old, burning her clothes. Sanford and Leroy, Bessie’s son, were asleep on a pallet on the floor that caught on fire. Bessie was also hit by the lighting. It hit the back of her chair, burned her shoulder and ran around her arm. It tore the drawers off of her sewing machine and knocked a hole in the floor as it entered the ground.
Jeff and Nick came into the house they saw us. Jeff tore off Ella Mae’s clothes and laid her on the bed. She thought Jeff’s cigarette had set her on fire. He tried to pick me up and I said, “I think every bone in my body is broken”.
Two doctors in Center Point were called. The phone line to Nashville was dead, we could not call our Doctor. The doctor laid my toes on top of my foot and cleaned them. They placed them back in position and wrapped gauze around my foot. It bled so much. They dressed Bessie’s shoulder and arm.
They packed cotton around Ella Mae and took scissors and cut the blisters to let the water run out. They melted ointment and dipped rags in it. They then placed them on her burns. She had swallowed some of the flame. Her mouth was too sore to drink water. We squeezed water from wet rags into her mouth a few drops at a time.
The next day I begged to go home. Friend made a bed for Ella Mae and me. They took us back to Nashville. Earl Williams told his wife Sadie to put fresh linen on the beds. He was not sure Ella Mae would live long enough to make the trip home. Thank God, Dr. Daily and dear people, we made the trip home.
The 9th day the Doctor came in and Ella Mae was in a stuper (unresponsive). He cut all her bandages off. Her burned flesh came off with it. You could see her ribs. The odor was so bad that people burned coffee to be able to sit with her. My father, her grandpa was the only one she would let turn her in bed. He stayed three days and nights without changing clothes in order to be there when she called for him.
When Jeff saw that she might be dying, he dropped to his knees and prayed, ”Oh God, save my baby for me and I will live for you”.
During this time I was laying in a bed in the same room hearing my baby call over and over, “Oh, Mama, Oh, Mama”. I could not get to her. When they dressed her side they would hold up a sheet between us so I could not see how bad she was.
Grandpa and Papa stood by us and helped with our care. A neighbor, Myrtle Cagle left her baby with her husband and set with us until she almost had a nervous breakdown. Sanford was two years old. I sent for Aunt Rhennie Baker, my Dad’s sister. Aunt Rhennie stayed for two weeks and helped Jeff do the wash every other day. There were times Jeff’s mother would come and stay for a week.
It was nine months before Ella Mae healed.
It was three months before I could walk. I put a pillow in the seat of a ladder back chair. I placed my knee on the pillow and would walk the chair bobbing it when I needed to be up. I could cook in this position. After four or five months I could walk on the back of my heel. I could drive up our cow, pen her up and milk. I needed milk for the children.
One day while driving up the cows I saw a young man and woman by the creek. He was holding a mirror and the young woman was combing her hair. I continued on toward the house and the man said, “Lady, can you tell us if Jeff Jeans lives on this farm”. I said, “Yes, I am his wife”. He picked up a suitcase to follow me. They introduced themselves. It was my mother’s baby sister, Aunt Della and Uncle Acie Lafeavre.
Acie was a first cousin to my father. Someone had told them about Ella Mae and me being lightening struck. Aunt Della said, “I had to come to see you, you are my sister’s daughter. They stayed for a week or so and I haven’t seen her since.
I was pregnant with our third child when I was lightened struck. Eight months later, February 2, 1922 Reeder J.C. was born.
NOTE: By Betty Jeans. I have heard Granny tell this story many times. She said, in her telling, that while Papa was tearing off her burning clothes, Ella Mae (my mother) said: “Papa why did you burn me?” She said this, because Papa had lit a cigarette only a short time before the lightening had struck. She would always cry at the telling of this story.