Emily LaRue Gardner McCleve

During these years, the number of doctors was limited and medical treatment many times was by members of the family. Mother tells of the time that she and her brothers, Ralph and Kenneth, were playing on the baled hay in the barn. The bales began rolling, the three of them fell and Ralph broke one arm. Since no doctor was nearby, Grandpa Hansen set the arm and placed slits of boards onto it to hold it perfectly straight. Later, Mother developed an infection in a sore on her knee which needed some treatment very quickly since it turned to blood poison. It was the middle of the night and Mother was in bad shape. While Mother lay in bed, her sister Ruby and her father and mother used a lantern to search for and find a prickly pear cactus so they could cut the leaf and place this over the infected sore. This treatment solved the problem very quickly.