Installment #7: Dealing with more loss

Uncle Dougie (center), Claudell (left) and Glenda Oliver. Glenda was a year older than Claudell. The two girls had met at church.

Claudell was only 9 years old when her grandmother died. For the next few years, she and her family continued to live in the tiny house her grandmother left her.

Claudell loved animals and was always picking up strays. She was good friends with Charlie Barnett, the local dog catcher. When someone lost an animal, Charlie checked with Claudell to see if she had found it.

One day she found a dog roaming around uptown. Charlie didn't know who it belonged to so Claudell kept the dog, quickly becoming attached to him. In Installment #4, I mentioned that the shack was located on mining land. That land had many bottomless shafts where minerals had been mined, making the area quite unstable and unsafe.

Claudell's backyard was just a few yards from one of those bottomless shafts. One day her beloved dog got out of the backyard fence and fell into the hole located directly behind the property. Surprisingly, he landed on a ledge several yards down. When she realized her pet was missing, Claudell began looking everywhere for him. She finally heard a faint bark and knew he had fallen into the dark pit.

She ran up the street to the volunteer fire station to get help. Charlie was there. She told them what happened. Charlie and Claudell ran back to the shaft. The firemen followed in the fire truck. Many of the town's people also followed. Claudell kept screaming, "Get my dog out of there!"

When the fireman saw where the dog had fallen, they said it was too dangerous to send anyone down to save the dog. In the crowd was a very old man - a wino - who volunteered to go down into the shaft. He told Claudell to get a pillow case so she ran to the house and got one. He told the firemen to tie one rope around his legs and buttocks; a second rope was used as extra security. The fireman slowly lowered the man into the dark pit. When he reached the dog, he carefully put the scared animal into the pillow case. Once secured, the firemen gently raised the man and dog to safety. The town's people cheered. The wino was a hero for a day. Because the area was so dangerous, Claudell and Charlie decided it was best the dog went to live with Charlie.

Pearl (left) and Claudell. This picture wasn’t necessarily taken the night Claudell met Jimmy.

When Claudell was around 14 years old, Lucille's brother Donald (Dougie) came home on leave from the Army. He picked up Claudell and they drove to Houston to spend a few days with his wife, Pearl. Even though they had been married for several years, they had lived separately for most of that time. They were good friends but lousy husband and wife. Pearl was a registered nurse and worked at a Houston hospital.

The three went to a supper club where there were dancing and a live band. Claudell met a tall, blonde, thin serviceman named James McClain. Jimmy was 18 years old, possibly Norwegian, and a Merchant Marine. Uncle Dougie and Aunt Pearl spent most of the evening sitting at the table talking and having drinks. Claudell and Jimmy spent the evening dancing and getting to know each other.

When it was time to leave the club, Jimmy kissed her on the forehead and hugged her. He told Dougie "I'm going to marry her when she grows up."

Claudell and Uncle Dougie arrived back in Galena a couple of days later.  Shortly after their arrival, Claudell received a letter from Jimmy. He had informed his parents of his intent to marry her when she got older. A few days later, she received a card from his mother welcoming Claudell to the family. Jimmy left to fight in the war. Claudell received two more letters from him.

Back in those days, most people didn't have a telephone, so when someone needed to speak to someone else, they would call the local drugstore and make arrangements for the person to be at the phone at a certain time. One day, Claudell got a call from Jimmy's mother so Claudell went to the drugstore and waited for the call. His mother told Claudell the ship Jimmy was on had been hit by a torpedo and blown up. There were no survivors.

Claudell cried. Her relationship with Jimmy was like a dream. She had been all alone since her grandmother had died. Jimmy had made her feel wanted. He made her feel loved. Now he was gone. She was all alone again.