I took Mamma to J. C. Penney's, at that time downtown at Pearl and 13th. When the clerk brought out a wine colored dress for Mamma to try on, she would not take it off or look at any more dresses. She wore it home. Then she found the sleeves a little shorter than she liked. I got wine colored silk to make her a nice slip so I used some of the silk to lengthen the sleeves.
My mother had an old Black silk blouse and a long black skirt which she said she was to be buried in. She had been with me a year when she went back to Kansas for a visit, she said as she was leaving that she was taking her Black Dress and hoped she died while in Kansas so she could be buried there in the family lot. Two weeks later she returned. When she phoned from the Bus station, Otis was away at work so I didn't have the car to go after her. I went to the Sawhill family and they went after her.
In December of that year came the attack on Pearl Harbor and we were at war. Otis was deferred as he was my only support. He carried a registration card, Hunting license, and Driver's licenses, and each one had his hair a different color.
My Mother passed away and I took her back to Douglass for Burial. [Editors' note: November 1942?] Her long time Pastor George Watts said to My Sister and I, that we shouldn't grieve as all the years he had known her, she had wanted to die. She was buried in the Wine Colored dress. The old black dress was given to the Douglass Museum.
The day I got home from the funeral, I hurried to do a washing as Otis and David had been "batching", David in school and Otis working, so they had quite a few dirty clothes. I had them sorted in Piles on Kitchen floor when a Knock at Door and there was the Dr. Rufus Baker, pastor of Boulder Church. After a short Visit with him, I got my washing on the line and supper for my Boys. Farmers worked late getting in the Harvest.