115 8/1/1947 Helen Carlson to Sadie Erwin

Helen Carlson 3409 Fremont Ave. South, Minneapolis 8, Minnesota Friday, August 01, 1947

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Mrs. Dahlstrom called me Tuesday and I had a long talk with her and she told me all about her trip. She said you were sick in bed, Mother, over at Stella's house. I was going to send Stella a wire and ask her what was the matter but then was sure if anything was really wrong they would let me know about it. I sure hope you are feeling fine now. You folks probably get tired of hearing you work too hard all the time but I certainly wish you could cut down on your hours. That mad rush seven days a week is too much. If you could only get someone there to help out so you all could get more rest. You would get used to an outsider before long. It just isn't worth it to kill yourselves working like that. How is the business? Is it still going real good? Mrs. Dahlstrom is a funny person. She told me she knew I would be anxious to see her and hear more about everyone, but she said she just didn't know when she would be able to have anyone over, because Wally would be around all day now until he went back to school and she said it would take her at least a month to get rested up. I told her not to worry I wouldn't come until I was invited. Last Tuesday night Mrs. Carlson had a slight spell. Her aunt had died and she went to bed that night thinking about the funeral the next day. When Elmer and I went up to bed she was moaning just terrible. No one paid any attention to her so pretty soon she came sliding along the wall to our room saying water, water. I jumped up and got her water and Elmer just sat there and Mr. Carlson stayed in bed. She was so grateful for the water and I took her back to her room and told her to lie down but she said she couldn't sleep so she sat on the edge of the bed. I turned to walk out of the room and she had stood up and fell right over backwards. Still no one made a move to help her so I got mad and told Elmer and his father to pick her up so Mr. Carlson got out of bed and put her on the bed. Her eyes were just rolling. Then in few minutes she came out in the hall again and said she was going downstairs. I said I would go down with her but Elmer wouldn't let me and he got her back in bed. You should have seen her eyes. They were really crazy. Elmer told me then that she got streaks like that when she wanted sympathy. I asked him why they didn't give her sympathy then and he said because she would then be all the worse. He said they have tried every way there is and the best way is to ignore her as much as possible. He said that falling down was done on purpose. He said many times she has gone up to the attic and thrown herself down the stairs. He told me not to be surprised if she started screaming and kept it up all night. I told him if she started that I sure was getting out of here. She went to sleep though and the next day was in kind of a daze so Florence came and took her home with her. She is going to try and keep her there until Sunday. Florence said she is feeling fine now. Oh, yes, after she fell over backwards on the floor that made her kind of snap out of it because then she worried about being sent back to Rochester, but we told her we would never let them take her back there. Our fireplace and chimney are finished now. The brick layers quit then, that was yesterday, because the weather is too hot. The temperature is back to a hundred and over again. The brick layers will come back when it cools off a little. The plumber said he would get started next week. Dorothy Cochrane just called and wants me to come over so I might get ready and do that. Tonight we plan to take a ride on the launch. We have promised the kids all summer to take them. The fair starts next week but I don't care anything about it so won't be going. Well, Folks, I will stop for now but get all the rest you can. You too, Pop. With Love, Helen