Sister She

Mom, Dad, and baby Judy

Dad was in Japan in March of 1946 when he received a telegram that his wife and child were in serious condition. The baby wasn't due for two more months. He had received two telegrams and didn't know whether his wife and or child was still alive. Mom had been staying with her parents in her childhood home in Los Angeles while dad was gone. Our aunt Dot went by the house and found mom passed out. She was rushed to the hospital and had an emergency C-Section. Mom had what she told me was Uremic Poisoning. She also had problems with the RH Factor. This condition had only recently been discovered. Normally a pregnant woman wouldn't have an issue with her first pregnancy but because mom was given some of her mother's blood as a child there was already a problem with her blood being incompatible with the baby's. After Judy Ann was born, mom was unconscious for a week and the baby only survived four days so she never saw her. In the meantime, dad was trying to get home. It took him two weeks; he had tried to get passage on two different transport planes. Both planes never reached their destination. He finally got on a transport and arrived in San Francisco. He took a bus to LA and mom said that she hadn't cried until dad walked into the room.

-Sally Thomas Brown