Page 173 - Adobe Photoshop PDF

Chapter 20: The Big 1958

About November 1957, our little Cindi, age 4½, developed a
EODGGHU LQIHFWLRQ 6KH ZDV KRVSLWDOL]HG LQ RXU OLWWOH VHQLRU VWD൵ KRVSLWDO
in Ras Tanura. She had a high fever day after day. At our visits every af-
ternoon and evening she would continuously chant, “want to go home.”
It was terribly hard to see her so unhappy yet her condition needed the
hospitalization. After visiting her one night at the hospital, I came home
and phoned Dr. John Chapman, who was our District Medical Director.
I asked him why his doctors weren’t able to do anything to improve Cin-
di’s condition. Dr. Chapman immediately phoned the Aramco Medical
Center in Dhahran. He called back to tell us that the ambulance would
be ready in a few minutes to take us to Dhahran. Jean rode with her.
Cindi was received by an internist in the Aramco hospital, who immedi-
ately changed her antibiotic. Within a day, she started to improve. Jean
was badly upset at Cindi’s condition. Bill and Evelyn Squires played
host to Jean in Dhahran. In a few days, Cindi was able to return home.
While in the hospital, we had tried to divert her by asking her what she
would like as a present for being a good patient. She told us that she
wanted a hamster. We were able to obtain one and a suitable wire cage
for her at home.

The hamster proved to be a satisfactory pet, but sometime later
he escaped from his cage. We searched and searched in the house, but
FRXOG ¿QG QR WUDFH RI KLP :H DVVXPHG WKDW KH KDG HVFDSHG WR RXWVLGH

the house in some way. Several weeks later Jean and I were reading in
the living room one evening when we thought we saw something scurry
DFURVV D FRUQHU RI WKH URRP , VHDUFKHG HYHU\ZKHUH DQG ¿QDOO\ LQ WKH

kitchen, saw the hamster. I managed to catch him and return him to the
FDJH :H ZHUH QHYHU DEOH WR ¿JXUH RXW KRZ KH IRXQG HQRXJK IRRG WR

survive during the several weeks when he was missing. Even more con-
founding, how did he obtain enough moisture to survive? In any case,
ZH ¿QDOO\ KDG KHU SHW EDFN

169