Page 18 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active

and family. Thankfully, Doug arranged for her last living facility and subsequent
burial. He would often break down and cry with personal hurt. He was a minister
and family counselor who could help others with their hurts but seemed unable to
resolve his own personal wounds. To this day his personal hurt is still too great for

him to overcome. I recall him once asking Mom, “How could you do this to all of
us?”
Several years after Dad died, Mom married again to a guy named Ted Lodholz.

They were basically just companions; it was convenient for both. Ted was a blue-
collar worker who liked his beer. I remember that they fought a lot over money.
When Mom died at age 93, she was buried in Jefferson Barracks next to Ted
instead of next to Dad.

Reflecting on Mom, she was, in my opinion, a full-blown psychotic, paranoid
schizophrenic-like person with a manic-depressive personality. This comes from
everything I know and have read about her and these mental illnesses. She always

claimed to be sick. She either had it or would be getting it – all the various
sicknesses, that is.

When Dad was at work, Mom went to many doctors. Aunt Clara would come to do
the grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, and most of the cooking. I
remember that we had an old Maytag wringer washing machine at that time, and
one time she got her hand stuck in the wringer. I helped her get it out only to find
out that she had nearly ripped her thumb almost completely off. She took a taxi to

St Anthony’s Hospital where they sewed her back up and took care of her.

She had to take a taxi to the hospital because we didn’t have a car. No one in the
family had a car – that is not until Dad found out that Jesse James, who had
falsified his death, was actually still alive at 100+ years old. He was living in the
Missouri Meramec Caverns about 50 miles south of St. Louis. Dad then bought an
old black Plymouth and would frequently go on his days off to see Jesse. On
several occasions, he would take Betty and me along, and on the way, he would

stop to see a female friend. We were required to sit on the sofa in the living room
and pet the dog while they were together; there was no TV back then.

Back to Mom, it is my opinion that Mom also had an obsessive-compulsive
disorder, for sure. She was always washing her hands. Soup cans, vegetables and
milk bottles always had to be thoroughly washed. She would never hold us or tell

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