My friend Edna

Edna's Story

Edna was married with 3 little children ; her husband had cleaned a motorcycle with gas in the front room and when the children went out the door to get the mail, the sun caught the room on fire. Edna ran through the burning room so the children would not come back inside. As she walked down the lane to get help, the skin actually hung off her legs from the terrible fire. She was put in a hospital where they could do nothing for her. A visiting physcian from Seattle was there seeing patients when he heard her yelling with pain. He went to see her and said he would move her to Seattle and would work on her in his spare time. So that is what he did. Finally, he had no more skin he could graft so he asked if she had any relatives. She had a twin brother who gave skin for her. Very slowly and painfully, she recovered with a lot of scarring and deformed arm and much else. The doctor would not take a penny for his work on her, but said she could bake him a blackberry pie. Edna drove 90 miles each way to Seattle each year and took him 2 black berry pies and when he died, she took them to his wife until she died. And Edna also took care of her brother whenever she could. When asked why she didn't die, she said there was no one else to take care of her 3 children.

To continue Edna's story, she remarried later and had 3 more children. One day while washing outside windows, she fell from a ladder, and broke her crooked arm. She was laying on the ground when the girls got home from school on the bus. They looked at her and thought she was dead. Nora said to Cindy, "Will you be my mom now?" Edna survived and her bent arm was only slightly crooked the rest of her life.

I met Edna at the Darrington Clinic. At that time, she was cleaning the clinic. You have never seen a cleaner place! One day a doctor was there and spilled some water on the floor. He took a white towel and wiped up the water. He looked at the towel that showed no sign of dirt, and he Yelled ," Who cleans this clinic" Edna heard him and came running. He said, " I want you to come and clean for me".

Edna later became the nursing assistant. She would even stop after hours or weekends to see if she could help. We became great friends. Edna was amazing, I could tell you stories!!! She died with cancer., and I miss her. My Friend Edna