Letters 13 Part 1
Johns Hopkins 1946 and The Wedding
[The letters still head to India but by April parents have arrived in America from Calcutta via an old steamship, the Sea Stallion. Mother narrates the wedding of Tissie and Lee.]
January 3, 1946
Christmas vacation which included a week at Uncle Lee's is just over. Gene met me there and we had the grandest time ever. Near New York we discovered some friends of Woodstock days, Dr. Douglas Formen and family. We children all went to school together. Dr. Forman, formerly of Allahabad, is now one of the secretaries of the Christian Medical Council for Overseas Work.
Learning of my medical ambitions he invited Gene and me out to supper one night. He especially encouraged my public health interest since he feels public health and mental care are the two crying needs of India's physical welfare at the present time. So it looks like I shall be emphasizing surgery first and then try for a degree in public health. Heaven only knows what connection there is between those two, but all the training I can get will be little enough for the task ahead of me.
The present term ends soon and I go on Obstetrics next. By the time you read this I shall no doubt have delivered several babies. I do not relish the idea of getting up any hour of these cold January nights!
I love you and with great gusto tell people (who ask) that I am the son of Baptist missionaries. Who could have a better heritage!
February 2, 1946
Schools are all slowing down to pre-war schedules, so I will have a long gap of six months before the next new year begins. Since the Selective Service law doesn't permit us so long a vacation, the school is running in an extra quarter of elective courses.
So far I've brought two babies into this "cold, cruel world", and assisted with three others. It's dramatic business. Once it kept me up two days and two nights without a wink of sleep, and to sit through four hours of morning lectures in addition was exquisite torture.
To get back to Dr. Forman: he was all for Vellore, the Medical College in South India made famous by Dr. Ida Scudder, where both men and women are now trained under Christion auspices. He would like to send me to the staff there, and no doubt it would be a great opportunity. But that decision is out of my hands. I feel it is God's business, not mine. Right now I must get the best and the most training possible. Obviously I cannot do everything or even know where I am most needed, but all these matters will work out and do not plague me now.
Not the least of the things which keep me going these days is my own time of private prayer before breakfast. The press of the day only proves the necessity of such a practice. I enjoy the hour and wish I could share its blessing with a kindred soul.
May 3, 1946
It was exciting news that your Sea Stallion [the ship they travelled on from Calcutta to New Orleans] had landed you safely at New Orleans Here's hoping we get together soon!
Dr. Arthur Boggs of our mission at Ongole, South India, was here two days recently to speak to the students about medical missionary work. I had to make all the arrangements and was extremely proud to present a man like him.
We are now busy with the elective course provided to keep us here till June first. I work in the Children's Psychiatric Clinic, a rather new thing. There are only a few in America as yet, and this is the best known in the world.
I study the social problems of children and mothers from broken homes. It's an education in human nature, and it only reinforces my opinion that you two have been the most wonderful parents any child could have had in spite of greater obstacles than most parents face over here.
When this course finishes we get a three-months' holiday, which means I shall not graduate until next June. I haven't made any plans yet but must stick around until news of my internship appointment comes through, probably early in July.
May 30, 1946
I've considered the whole question of marriage a thousand times over. There are always unknowns, but, since graduation comes six months later than we anticipated, I'm prepared to "put my hand into the hand of God and go out into the dark" this summer.
I feel more satisfied all the time that this is the best thing to do. The worst of med school is behind and the difficult year of internship is ahead. An intern must treat his wife like a widow since he practically lives at the hospital. Tissie has the offer of a good position here in Baltimore and will continue to work.
We have talked over plans for a June wedding even though soon afterwards we go our separate ways again. Tissie will have to wind up her Cumberland job, and I must get out of the city for a change and earn some money if possible. I just heard that Hopkins' med students used to get jobs on ships in the summer thus combining business with pleasure. It's worth looking into.
We want Dr. Kirk to marry us in the little chapel of his church which we think of as our spiritual home. We want you, our father and mother, Uncle Lee and Aunt May and a few close friends. Bill is in Canada and John and Gene have left this part of the country. Tissie will not have a formal wedding dress but something "bridey" enough, she says, and I will wear my old white palm beach suit.
June 10, 1946
Flash! Lieutenant George Miller of the United States Marines has just got back from China! He is being discharged at Corpus Christi today, and how I wish for his support as my best man!
There are only two weeks left before the fateful day and I’m trying, tooth and nail, to redecorate the apartment. How I wish I had some one to help me! I've got a whale of a lot of ideas and no time to make them come alive.
[The following was added by Mother. You may recognize the writing style in some of the previous letters from Lee, which she edited. Note that I have located three large tubs of originals and will have some of them out after I finish this series - REH ]
THE WEDDING
Lee's SoS "I wish I had somebody to help me" sent his mother scurrying from Kansas to his rescue even though until then she hadn't thought she could afford to attend the wedding.
She found her son in a ragged operating gown splashing swaths of yellow paint on the dining room ceiling too excited for coherent speech. "Mother! How good of you...but hurry! find another gown. Did you have breakfast? Grab another brush and do the kitchen. Where's Daddy? Make yourself some tea, there must be some in the cupboard. Will Tissie like yellow?"
Two hours later the Marines in the handsome person of Lieutenant George Willer strode on the scene. Excitement heightened to pandemonium but there was not a moment to lose. "Now George, everything's under control. You get to work," commanded the general in charge.
Resting on a stack of thick medical volumes in the middle of the living room floor, and surrounded by other stacks of books and assorted personal effects, George observed sympathetically, "Sure looks like you’ve had a direct hit."
Again the general, "Best Man, grab a brush and get to work on that kitchen so Mother can cook us some stew."
The Marine went to work with half a candy bar in his mouth and a great happiness in his heart. Three tongues wagged that day faster than all their paint brushes put together. The joy of reunion and the decorating deadline almost obliterated thought about the wedding only two days off. "Lee, I'm supposed to hand you the ring. Have you got one yet?" the best man asked a little anxiously.
Lee's father's arrival the following day filled his cup of joy to the three-quarter's mark. "Mother, George and Dad...and tomorrow, Tissie..." he thought. "With Tissie my cup will fill and overflow." He shivered as he wiped beads of perspiration from his paint-spattered brow.
"Hurry up, Dad. Get on some work clothes and lend a hand with these shelves. Stack up the books any old how till I have time to sort them. My, it's good to see you again!" [They have seen each other since August 1941.]
By noon of the 22nd of June the tiny apartment was itself arrayed like a bride to receive its new mistress. It smelled rather strongly of fresh paint but there were fluffy white curtains at the windows, fresh doilies on the dressing table and a few choice dishes to grace the dining room.
To mark the passing of his bachelorhood Lee's mother had prepared his favorite boyhood dish, rice and curry. Normally Lee consumed unbelievable quantities of it, but after the blessing he just turned his plate over. His eyes begged for understanding. "Mother," he pleaded, "I'm just not hungry now. I've thought of an errand down street."
He pushed his chair back and hurtled downstairs with less than an hour before time to be at the church. "Bet it's the rings," chuckled George. "He said he had one but he's probably mislaid it."
No, it was not the ring. Lee had just remembered he hadn't a pair of pajamas to his name. He had slept in undershorts and operating room castoffs so long he'd even forgotten about such things. He decided it was high time he gave some attention to his trousseau!
The scent of summer flowers and the strains of wedding music filled the little chapel as the principals took their places before the altar. The Marine upheld Lee, and Tissie, accompanied by a girlfriend from Cumberland, was given away by her Navy lieutenant brother, John Croft. Dr. Kirk, still looking like Churchill, duly and soundly joined the young couple before him in holy matrimony.
Among the small group of friends who greeted the new bride and groom were Dr. Christine Fall, Baylor English professor and close friend of Tissie; Bob Faulconer, Lee's roommate and first friend at Hopkins and his wife Bunny; Dr. Firor, Lee's idol, one of the Big Four surgeons at Hopkins, and Dr. Leroy Allen headed for missionary service in India as soon as his war job with the Maryland State Health Board finished, Uncle Lee could not be present owing to preparations for a secretarial visit to Burma.
