My first cousin, born Curtis Jean Pearsall, arrived on January 10, 1945. His mother Elizabeth (Betty) Beitzer was only sixteen years and tragically died in childbirth. Heartbroken, my paternal grandmother, known to us as Grandma Liz, had to make arrangements to care for her first grandson. (Interestingly, a second grandson was also born the next day, January 11, to my father's brother Robert. I don't know if my grandmother was aware of his birth at the time.) So, within two days, I had two male infant cousins. (Both lost their lives to illness within a couple of years of each other in their mid-sixties.)
My Aunt Betty had become pregnant by a young man who was no longer in the picture. I don't know if he was unaware he was a father or if he did not want the responsibility of being a husband and father. Before the birth, she married a young man by the name of Pearsall, who apparently knew the baby was not his. He declined to take baby Curtis home and departed, never to be heard from again. Thus, it was left to my paternal grandmother, as the next of kin, to decide how to care for baby Curtis.
Grandma Liz sat down with my mother, my maternal grandmother Norma Kent Marsh, and my young aunt to discuss options for the newborn. Grandma Liz was willing to take on his care, but she worked full time and was short on domestic skills. Ultimately, the four women concluded that my mother, who was already in full baby care mode, would take custody of baby Curtis. There was some concern because Curtis was jaundiced, but little was known in 1945 about the causes and treatment of jaundice. He began to thrive physically, but he seemed on some level to be aware of his difficult start in life. He was a fussy baby who was very physically active. Almost before he could walk, he would climb things and get into things--sometimes dangerous things. He scaled shelves, he opened cupboards, he took the tops from containers. Curtis became a full-time job before he was a year old.
I was a different kind of baby, colicky at first but quickly settling into a reasonably contented existence once the colic ended. I began talking very early, and a family joke is that I never stopped. There's probably truth in that!
My Aunt Betty had become pregnant by a young man who was no longer in the picture. I don't know if he was unaware he was a father or if he did not want the responsibility of being a husband and father. Before the birth, she married a young man by the name of Pearsall, who apparently knew the baby was not his. He declined to take baby Curtis home and departed, never to be heard from again. Thus, it was left to my paternal grandmother, as the next of kin, to decide how to care for baby Curtis.
Grandma Liz sat down with my mother, my maternal grandmother Norma Kent Marsh, and my young aunt to discuss options for the newborn. Grandma Liz was willing to take on his care, but she worked full time and was short on domestic skills. Ultimately, the four women concluded that my mother, who was already in full baby care mode, would take custody of baby Curtis. There was some concern because Curtis was jaundiced, but little was known in 1945 about the causes and treatment of jaundice. He began to thrive physically, but he seemed on some level to be aware of his difficult start in life. He was a fussy baby who was very physically active. Almost before he could walk, he would climb things and get into things--sometimes dangerous things. He scaled shelves, he opened cupboards, he took the tops from containers. Curtis became a full-time job before he was a year old.
I was a different kind of baby, colicky at first but quickly settling into a reasonably contented existence once the colic ended. I began talking very early, and a family joke is that I never stopped. There's probably truth in that!
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