I have just had my Christmas the week of Dec 10 to 17. Susan Giles and her husband, Daniel Garceau, drove up from Florida to visit and help me with getting rid of “stuff”, and scanning pictures into computer for funeral video and website. Taught me how to do it too which was great. Sue also flew up here in April for a week and helped me buy my new laptop computer. She transferred all the info from the old big tower to this skinny laptop. I marvel at what a computer whiz she is and just stand by in amazement., and also deep gratitude for all she does for me. But she says I do pretty well in learning this stuff at 88. I am still trying to learn how to use the new laptop and especially Windows 10 system which I hate.
Last Xmas I was felled Dec 20 til a week after New Year’s with a really bad virus, so some of you did not even get a Xmas card or letter. I have tried to include 2017 letter in those missed, but a few may get duplicate letters, or missed. I get a little confused sometimes. Then Sat, Jan 13, I went to Symphony. A snowstorm forced us to change tickets at an almost sellout performance and we ended up in the gallery—not disabled friendly. With no railing to hang on to, I ended up having a serious traumatic fall. Trying to get down a step, my body pitched forward, my face/head struck an iron bannister like a baseball hitting a bat, then I rolled down a few steps—landing on my left shoulder with legs entangled in the seats.
Yes, I have recovered. But the year since has offered more challenges than fun. Council On Aging (COA) changed my agency to get better home & health care. They were awful—emphasis on F! — Untrained, incompetent, disrespectful & a different girl every week. It was chaotic and stressful at a time I needed calm and professional care. A third agency was a great improvement—until in Nov. the best aide I had had in a while took a picture with her smart phone of my debit card lying on the table and, with an app, started using my bank account as her own for a week until the bank caught it! And so it goes. Fighting peripheral neuropathy and back pain, I got an epidural in July. I think that and the effects of the fall activated my glaucoma. Left eye has been blind for 4 or 5 years, but suddenly this year my very good right eye is going blind. So scary. If it does not stabilize in the near future I may soon be forced to move up to Assisted Living! I had to sell my little red car in July, another step out of independence. I am reminded of Dylan Thomas’ poem- “Do not go gentle into that good night; Rage, rage against the dying of the light…”
In all this my dearest angel has been Annette Roth. She takes me everywhere; to the grocery and does all the heavy lifting and packing; to doctor appts. and sits in to advocate with her Ph.d Chemistry back- ground and to help me remember; and finally to events. I have cut play attendance in half (7-8) and even reduced symphonies from 19 to 13. Jack Williams makes sure I get to Phi Beta sedentary meetings but I have resigned all the duties like yearbook and calling committee I once did.
Pam Smith has been my dearest friend since 1971and sponsored me into Phi Beta. I have had Xmas Day dinner at her house with husband Dr. Rufus and family for 30 years—but not this year. In May, we got the news that Pam had suddenly passed away. Ruf, at 91, would have been expected, but Pam was only 78 and his caretaker. 10 weeks later, ironically the day of the Phi Beta National Convention dinner here in Cincinnati, Alex and family had moved Ruf into a nice Asst. Living facility, then came to the dinner where Pam’s Grandson Nicholas played a lovely saxophone solo. Ruf never even spent the night. He collapsed before bedtime, went to hospital and never came out. To lose his beloved Pam and his home was more than he could bear. My heart weeps deeply at Pam’s loss, as it does with Ruf. And so, as her son Alex said : “We have truly come to the end of end of an era!”
Speaking of coming to the end of an era, I have decided that this will be my last Christmas “newsletter” letter production. In my metal file case is a big fat folder labeled “Christmas Letters”. The first one is Xmas 1955! 63 years of letters. Several people have asked me to write my Memoirs. —Susan has set up a web site for me. I have decided to scan in all my Xmas letters, along with appropriate pictures along the way, and edit text thru the years as time and sight will let me. I signed up for Facebook last year and have never really learned to use it. It is just not for me. The website will suit me better and probably be titled: ‘CarolynRuthHuntmemoirs/bio’ and include 19th and 20th century Brown and Hunt/Rasor family history and pictures. No content in there yet but that is my positive goal for this coming year, along with stabilizing my sight and staying out of Assisted Living.
Christmas and New year’s day have come and gone, but I still wish you greetings of that season, love and hope for a more positive year for our American democracy and for you personally.
Update August, 2019
Well, I DID manage to avoid Assisted Living! January 27, 2019 I went 911 to the hospital for gastro problems and ended up in full-time nursing care. My new address is 5343 Hamilton Ave, HP-2217, Cincinnati, OH, 45224. My phone number is 513-853-2974.
I’m now 89, blind and in a wheelchair, have to be put to bed every night, & sleep sitting up, but hanging in there. Willa has a new loving home with Annette’s daughter. Thanks to Susan, my website is LIVE, though not finished at this time. You can see it at carolynruthhunt.com. Check back often as things are getting added.
Love,
Carolyn Ruth
What is it about me? I’m a perfectionist. Organized. On time. And I found out that I am also really, really good with money.
My first experience was when I was treasurer of alpha Z Delta social sorority at Marshall College. And when I did Wingspread Summer Theater in 1960 with Tad Curry, I was the business manager. We did 10 plays in 10 weeks. I also built sets and played Alma in Summer and Smoke. She’s on stage for the whole time except for one scene in the First Act and one scene in the second act. So, I played the lead in Summer and Smoke, built sets, ran the box office, and was the business manager – the whole caboodle! Goodness, what things I did when I was young.
When I got out of college what did I go into? Something similar to what my dad was in; General Motors Acceptance Corporation dealing with money. My job was with Midland Loan Company, one of those small loan companies and I interviewed people that wanted to get a loan. I was there for about 4 months when Dad found out they had an opening upstairs in his building with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. For a nice pay raise I went there. I was there for three years until I went back to college, dealing with numbers again.
So instead of being a teacher during that part of my life, which looking back on it now maybe I should have done, I was working as a clerk. The agents would be in one room with their cigars and their cigarettes and the smoke. Harriet Stalder and I had our own office and a window for the people coming up to pay their $5 a month or whatever they were paying so they have insurance. When I could, I’d go talk to the agents and try to find out all I could about selling insurance. When I suggested that maybe I could do it, they’d say, OH NO! Women can’t sell insurance! Well, Heaven forbid that a woman should sell insurance. There were a couple of other places too where I suggested that I could do something and OH! Women can’t do that! That’s what I encountered from 1952 to 1955 in getting jobs and teaching college. You really had to prove yourself. Why are you not getting a Ph.D.? Do you get a Ph.D. or an MRS? Well, I was kind of at the beginning of the feminist movement, and I said Hell Yes! Women can do that!
I did practically get a Ph.D. I took all of the course work at Northwestern University toward a Ph.D. in theater: acting, directing, stage, and costuming. I’m quite sure that maybe another two years I could have gotten a Ph.D. But to get a PhD you had to do two things, one was to write a long research thesis. And two, after you got your job in teaching in college, you had to publish. That’s part of the re-creation versus creation idea. I was always better at re-creation than creation. And I just didn’t feel I had it in me to do the writing and the publishing. I mean years later I could, after I really learned more about teaching and writing, but at the time I didn’t feel like I could. And I just didn’t want to do the academic stuff. I wanted to do the acting. I wanted to do the directing. I wanted to be a doer and not bury myself in a library. So that again is a choice – the tactile – participate in the activity and know what you’re doing. But I wasn’t ready to do the academic research and didn’t know how to do the academic research along with the activity. I kind of knew my physical limits when I moved to Cincinnati to teach high school and some of that was the fact of being 90 lbs and anemic.
For instance, I had to choose between Courter Tech and Princeton High School. Princeton gave three plays a year and you had to teach high school and produce and direct three plays a year in addition to teaching and commute 20 miles one way. Or, I could just drop down off the hill for 5 minutes and go to Courter Tech and do one play a year and a variety show with the band director and have a 5-minute commute to work. Well, I chose Courter Tech and the five-minute commute to work. And Courter Tech being a vocational high school – drawing underprivileged kids from all over the city who are dedicated to getting a high school degree like auto mechanics, beauty school, secretary, and woodworking – made it more like a college campus with a college atmosphere, much more than the suburban high school that I would have gone to. I never regretted that choice. I made wonderful life-long friends at Courter Tech and I think it was so valuable to help the kids there. I have memories of special things and special stories from classes and from the plays that will always be with me. And when I think of Oak Hills High School that I went to after that – which is a Suburban high school – there’s not much that stands out. It was Suburban. It was Provincial. The Cincinnati public schools and Courter Tech subsidized my going to the Speech Association of America conferences every year, bringing back new ideas into the classroom. When I went to Oak Hills they did not want to subsidize my going to national conventions. When I had to write up my trip and give it to them, I know for a fact – from what I was told – that they took what I wrote, stuffed it in a file, never read it, and could care less. Anyway, I went to Oak Hills after Courter Tech, and I kind of regret taking that path. But that’s what I did.
Then in 1991, I joined Phi Beta and in around 1994 became treasurer (there’s that money thing again). By 1998 or 1999 I had morphed into secretary. I was president for at least half the time between 1991 and 2001. Then in 2008 when I was 78 years old I said I cannot do this anymore. But I kept the organization going until then. They’ve sort of kept it going since then, but they’re deciding now whether they’re going to dissolve. Because, well, it was formed in 1912 by women when they couldn’t get into the arts much and they needed to have their own outlet for the arts. It wasn’t until the 30s and 40s and 50s that women started really being able to get into the profession and become prominent. It’s just gone the whole cycle. Now, if you are in the arts professionally you don’t have time for a sorority. And they’ve brought men into it now, too, so it’s just a fine arts organization. You can get into it when you are in college and if you don’t go totally professional, it’s a really wonderful organization and outlet. But if you do go professional, which the organization aims to go that high, you don’t have time to do anything until you’re close to retirement. So it’s kind of a weird situation and maybe the organization’s time has passed.
Norman L. Brown: (father of Lee and Ruth, Grandfather of Carolyn Ruth): farming experience
1. Early 1890’s to 1944 Owned and farmed at least 160 acres or more in his prime. I seem to remember something about him owning and farming 2/3 or 3/4 of a square mile. Crops were corn, wheat, soybeans, hay and straw, and tobacco. Stripped all their own tobacco.
2. He owned Horses (draft horses who pulled the farm equipment until he finally got a tractor in the mid 30’s, and horses who pulled carriages until they finally got a car). Maybe 100+ head of hogs, cattle and milk cows, chickens, and dogs. They maintained a huge vegetable garden (maybe 100 x 200 feet) which fed the family all year -fresh in summer, canned in winter.
3. He raised 6 children (+2 who died) who all had to work hard every day on that farm. Lee Brown was the next to youngest, My Mother, Ruth Lucille Brown (Hunt) was #3. She lived and worked on the farm and, essentially, raised the three younger children, Gladys, Lee, Glenn. She left the farm at age 19 when she married my father, Ennis B. Hunt; who also was born and raised on a farm and worked his own farm as a farmer from age 16 to 18, when he returned to high school, became a school teacher, then principal, then Supt. of Schools. He left education at age 38 to work for GMAC for 30 years and retired at age 68.
3. Carolyn Ruth Hunt was born to Ruth and “Abe” Hunt in 1930, and spent every summer, for a period of 2 weeks to 2 months, until she was 14, on “Granddaddy Brown’s farm”. Carolyn fed the chickens, picked eggs, hoed the garden and picked vegetables. Every June, Carolyn, Fred, and Ronnie (cousins) would pick cherries in the 3 cherry trees while their mothers, Ruth, Gladys, and Evelyn (wife of Glenn) would work with Grandmother Brown (Candis) in the kitchen baking cherry pies in a wood fired cookstove. Carolyn helped slop hogs, milk cows, etc, etc.
Source for the following is memory of Carolyn Ruth Hunt in 2003
In 1941, when I was 11, my mother, Ruth and dad, Abe, went on a 2 week summer road trip vacation to Florida. We drove down the east coast through St. Augustine to Miami, where I tried to learn to swim in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. While I was able to “ride” on the wave crests a little, I really still could not swim. Then we went to Clearwater Beach on the western gulf side of Florida. There I truly did finally learn to swim in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
And in a gift shop in Clearwater, I found a beautiful 10″ doll made completely of seashells. This seashell doll was ‘dressed’ like a late 18th century lady in a gown with the edges of each of the white shells rimmed in 1/4 inch pale blue paint; a small shell, painted as a face, was set reversed into a larger shell that acted like a sunbonnet. It was her favorite ornamental doll, through all her many moves over the next 35 years, holding a place of honor on her dresser.
—————– Fast forward to 1972… ——————–
It was late spring or early Summer that Bill Giles, standing beside me at my kitchen sink, said something about his daughter Susan. “Whaaat????!! You have a daughter!!!!!” Bill hadn’t mentioned one word about having a daughter since we re-connected in 1970. Bill loved being secretive and dropping surprise bombs like that.
Bill had moved, with his son Michael, from his apartment on Hamilton Ave., to live with a stripper and his current squeeze, Kitty, in her apartment on Hosea Ave. in Clifton (in Cincinnati, Ohio). He really did not want Susan staying there, so he asked me if Susie could stay with me while visiting him in Cincinnati. Of course, I said “Yes!”
So in 1972, at the age of 8 (almost 9), Susie spent about a month in Cincinnati, staying at my house as she visited her Daddy Bill. I showed her the Shell Doll, but never knew what an impression it made on Susie, how much she must have studied it at some point. When Susie came back to Cincinnati (maybe the next summer), she gave me a 2 3/4″ inch tiny replica version of my original commercial Shell Doll right down to the bouquet of flowers she held in front of her chest; only this one also had lace around the shoulders, feathers in the ‘hat’ and carried a closed parasol!!! ALL this was made, glued together and painted by Susan herself!!
It is impossible to express how unbelievably surprised and touched I was by Susie’s gift of beautiful artistry. I truly treasured this tiny hand crafted shelldoll, placing it beside her larger commercial one in its very special spot of honor on her kidney shaped dresser from 1973 until 2009 and 2013. Having kept and treasured these dolls for 35 & 40 years, in 2009, when Susie came to Cincinnati for Bill’s funeral, I gave the 10″ original ‘inspiration’ Shell Doll to her at that special time. Then in 2013, when I was 83 and Susie almost 50, I gave back to her the tiny shell doll she had made at age 9-10, to keep the two dolls together, and as a tribute to their long years of friendship.
- Sara Jane Kahn Moore 1946-47 – Sara Jane was a friend during my Junior year of High School during the play that we worked on together “The Late Christopher Bean”. See Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in San Francisco and Why she tried to kill the president.
- Charleston Heston May 1956 On the steps of Northwestern University School of Speech. See the story here.
- Son of the Chief of Tsonga (a Province of Mozambique) and later the President of FRELIMO, The Mozambican Liberation Front fighting for liberation from Portugal and the Portuguese Communist force c. 1957 Evanston, IL non-alcoholic pub. See the story here.
- While I was teaching at Skidmore College, from Sept 1959 – May 1962, my roommate’s sister lived next door to Jackie Onasis (later Kennedy) and I got to hear all the scoop on Jackie’s comings and goings.
- Robert Frost c. 1960, Skidmore College –
- William Shatner c. Winter 1960, Skidmore College – Dorothy Chernock was chair person of the the Speech and Drama department the 2nd year of my time at Skidmore. She was also head of the Corning Glass Summer Theater and William Shatner spent a couple of summers acting in her theater. When Mr. Shatner, only 8 months younger than me, learned an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear and toured schools doing that performance. Since he was good friends with Dorothy, he included Skidmore on his tour. After the performance, I, Dorothy, Mr. Shatner, Jay Keene (theater lighting and design), and a few other members of the Skidmore Speech and Theatre department went out to dinner at one of the nice places in town. It wasn’t anything special at the time. All professional theatre people go out after a performance to cool down in what we called an after-party and talk theatre. It was so normal to just go out after a performance, so it didn’t feel like anything special. It was just fun.
- Aretha Franklin c. 1964 I was “in charge” of the stage and production when visitors came for the Cincinnati Public School Artist Series. I got to meet Ms. Frankin when she did a show at Courter Tech for this series. She came to Courter Tech on one of her first tours.
- OJ Simpson 1967 DisneyLand – CRH was there to attend the national convention of the speech association of America. On that trip, I went to Disneyland and saw the Rose Bowl Parade. While at DisneyLand, I got on a ride to Pirate’s Cove and half of the football team was there on the ride with us and O.J. Simpson sat down beside me for the entire ride.
- Mikhail Baryshnikov c. 1980s walking down the street in New York City
- Nick Clooney c. 1994 Cincinnati Historical Society Banquet @ Union Terminal about costume design while guarding the costumes on display
- Suzanne Farrell c. 2008 Phi Beta dinner meeting and Master Class in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Tennessee Williams Camino Real Play in New York City – I went to the play early and sat in front of a seat that had a program on it. I thought ‘that ought to be a good seat’. Just before the show started, in walks a man who looked very familiar and sat in that seat behind me. The play, Camino Real was one of those ‘moment-in-the-theater’ nights. It was unbelievable. At the end of the play, uproarious applause arose. And at the end of the curtain call, the entire cast pointed right at me, because behind me was sitting the author, Tennessee Williams. It was the highlight of my life. I got him to sign the program and of course, I lost it.
- Keenan Wynn at a restaurant in the lower east side of New York City
- Martina Arroyo, Opera Singer sometime late 1970s or early 1980s. I took an interesting double exposure photo of her standing on stage and walking off stage. I let her know about it and I gave her a copy of the photograph.
- Daughter of the Bodyguard for Al Capone, 1958. I taught at the Northwestern University National High School Institute for 5 summers during my schooling to get my Master’s Degree there and after. The fourth or fifth year I taught there, my roommate was Al Capone’s bodyguard’s daughter.
I worked 3 days a week 4-5 hours a day restoring historical clothing.
| Dear | December, 2020 |
My last letter covered 2018 and a short note about 2019 saying it would be my last. But by the love and grace of Susan Giles, I am able to tell you about the highlights and lowlights of 2019 and 2020.
———————————-
On Sunday, January 27, 2019 I got hit with a severe diverticulitis attack and had to call 911. As the EMTs wheeled me through the living room I remember looking intently at Willa locked in her cage looking mournfully out of the door of her crate. We locked eyes and I was off to the hospital.
My diverticulitis attack meant an excruciating colonoscopy and endoscopy and five days in the hospital. They brought me back to Twin Towers rehab where it was determined I could no longer handle even assisted living. In my Patio Home, I fought like crazy to stay out of assisted living: so hard I had to skip it entirely. At the end of April, 2019, I was moved into “Skilled Nursing”. I have one large 18’ x 18’ room and a large bathroom, already furnished with a dresser, armoire, and hospital bed.
Annette, with the help of her daughter Caroline, was left with the monumental task of cleaning out my patio home. Some things got saved, others went to storage and some things got thrown out, lost forever. Annette also helped me find the things I needed to furnish my room like a recliner lift chair and a small desk that I had hoped to be able to use more than I have. She also helps me get supplies that I need and in so many other ways.
Willa got adopted by Annette’s daughter, Caroline, and got to visit me once in a while until COVID hit.
In August 2019 Susan drove up from Florida and spent a week organizing important papers and pictures and taking an inventory of my stuff. She also helped me decorate my room with pictures and posters from plays that I’ve done, as well as my favorite paintings and memorabilia from my life. Although I can’t see it with my eyes now, I can see everything in my memory.
In October, my Munier family drove in from Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, Utah to visit me and cleaned out the storage shed with the rest of my stuff to be shipped back to Las Vegas. It was wonderful to see Robin, Suzanne, and Joe with his two children, because two weeks later, November 1, I went completely blind. They drove 30+ hours non-stop from Salt Lake City, visited for two days and then drove straight back home non-stop 30+ hours. I was so happy to be able to pass on family heirlooms during their visit.
My volunteer helper, Lori, worked with me between September 1 and the middle of December to help me send out my Christmas cards last year. And then COVID hit. On March 11, I left Twin Towers at noon to go to the eye doctor. When I came home at 4 o’clock, Twin Towers had gone on complete lock-down and I’ve been confined to my room since then.
The morning of my 90th birthday was spent with Susan (virtually), and some Twin Towers nurses, aides, and other employees who sang Happy Birthday to me as a birthday cake from Annette and flowers from Susan arrived. Susan also gave me a subscription to an online music service, and I spend Saturdays and Sundays relaxing and re-living my favorite musicals and operas using the Google Home speaker and Android phone that she set up for me earlier in the year.
Monday thru Friday evening I keep my mind alert by listening to MSNBC news and working on my memoires with Susan Tuesday and Friday afternoons.
If you do computers, I hope you will go to my website, carolynruthhunt.com, and see what we have done so far, not just my life, but for family history back into the 19th Century.
My phone number is 513-853-2974 and I would enjoy hearing from you. With COVID, things are so crazy around here, the best time to call is between 2 and 4 in the afternoons, except Tuesday and Friday when I’m talking to Susan.
We’ve just had the election and hopefully our government will get back to normal, being less like a reality TV show featuring a lying dictator and more like a serious democracy.
I hope all is well with you. I give many thanks to Susan Giles, who has done all of the actual work to get this card and letter sent out.
Carolyn Ruth
To: Members of the Brown Family:
From: Carolyn Ruth Hunt
3204 Coral Park Drive, Cincinnati, OHio 45211-6928 Phone: 513-662-5532
Dear______________________________,
I am writing to everyone listed at the bottom of this letter so the information will be as accurate
as possible and all the same information.
I am writing to tell you that Fred Munier’s middle son, Dean, (age 39) has been diagnosed with
lymphoma-sarcoma, a very serious cancer. The tumor is large and has grown around muscle and (I
think) an artery and into the spine at the lower end of the spine on the left side. It was bad enough that
the doctors in Tulsa (where he lives) could not fully diagnose it and he had to go to Houston to a special
cancer hospital for 5 days for full diagnosis. He was then sent home to Tulsa for Chemo therapy which
he is undergoing right now.
The hope is that the chemo will reduce the tumor enough so they can operate, because right now
it is too large and invasive to operate to remove. Near the end of this month, he will go back to
Houston for more tests and hopefully a successful operation.
Fred is really upset, not only because of Dean’s illness, but also because it is almost impossible
for them to get any information from Dean’s wife, Dianna. She is not allowing any calls to Dean, even
from Fred. Fred is so upset he was/is seriously thinking about asking Tex Wadley (his father-in-law) to
borrow his RV motor home, drive it to Tulsa and park it in Dean’s driveway and live there!! I don’t
know that he will really go that far, but he WILL fly to Houston and be there when Dean is in Houston
at Anderson Hospital, whenever that time comes. “Little Freddie”, Dean’s younger brother and Fred’s
3rd son, will probably go, too.
Fred, Robin, Joseph & Suzanne did drive to Oklahoma for 10 days the first of August to see and
talk with and visit with Dean, as much as he could tolerate.
That is about all we know for now, but I will keep you posted. If the information is complex, I
will write again. If it is simple, I will call Cary/Lindsay and Glenn or Francis and you can pass the word
along to other members of the family. I have Dean’s address if you want to send cards.
Much Love,
Cary & Lindsay Brown (please tell Gary & Gale’s family)
Francis and Doris Brown (please tell Ronnie – I don’t have their new address)
Glenn & Evelyn Brown
Bruce & Miriam Shue
Connie & Warren Smith
Max & Dottie Munier
April 5, 2013
I am writing this “semi-form” letter to all of you to keep you all informed while saving a lot
of my mostly energy and also time. I will have a note for each of you personally at either the
beginning or the end of this. Some of you will get this by email, others by snail mail so arrival times
will vary.
I have been very sick for the last 10 weeks, since around the first of February. It would
be nice if I could just “give it a name”, but even the doctors have been at a loss to fully diagnose and
identify all the ‘problems’. I could write a book on all the day to day ups and downs, dr visits, tests
etc. etc. which you don’t want to read about and I don’t want to revisit. It was all made more challenging
by the fact I live and care for myself alone.
In Feb. it seemed everyone was being attacked by “bugs” but it soon became apparent I
was not in that common problem. MY “bug” or something was ‘traveling around’ thru different places
and organs of my body. I started calling them “Gremlins” which one Dr. pooh-poohed and 2 others
thought was a cute and apropo analogy. I had pain in my R “joey Votto” knee that I injured last summer,
then my ‘good’ L knee went out with much pain; traveled to my lower back (agony), all the while attacking my internal organs like kidneys and stomach and intestines. I even bought a rollator walker
with seat on March 4. (which I named Rolly (Raleigh) the Rollator!)
Thurs Feb 7, my ‘good’ left knee went out from under me at the top of the stairs. A
cortisone shot masked the problem which started to become painful a few days later. I dealt with that
pain and finally dr visits and an MRI one month later revealed that I had a lateral (parallel to the floor)
stress fracture at the top of the tibia (the “floor” on which the knee rests and moves). Swelling of the
bone marrow, and meniscus tears connected with it aggravated the problem and pain. As the initial
intense pain abated somewhat at the end of Feb, I started have increasing pain in my lower lumbar back.
After my March 7 MRI on knee, I came home in agony from my back and hit a stone wall. I called
Susan Giles in Fla—“Help” can I fly you up here for 10 days to take care of me. I literally could not
walk, sit, lie down or get up—do anything without agonizing #10 Pain. I could hobble from front door
to the car and driving was happily the best thing I could do. I had called Sue Thurs at 4pm, and on Fri,
the next day I picked her up at Cin airport at 11AM the next morning.
This ANGEL cared for me for 10 days, doing everything. We went to doctors, another
MRI of back. That back MRI revealed T12 and L1 acute compression fracture; L3-4-5 facet spurs and
and stenosis, L5-S1- severe degenerative change and bulge and large facet spurs. I was existing on 2
Advil every 4 hours 24/7. Stronger pills, then an epidural on March 21 and yesterday April 4 have abated the pain. The third ‘Gremlin’ rose his head in the weeks between epidurals – intense gastro-
intestinal problems – doctor pills and over the counter medication seemed to abate this problem, tho
we will see.
Hopefully the worst is over, tho I know I am writing this on my “steroid high” from the
epidural, which I know sooner or later will go away. Plans are for me to start PT in about 2 weeks, and
I HOPE to begin a slow climb back to some semblance of normal by June. The back and knee damages
are permanent, and something I will have to deal with probably forever. This report is not very coherent
(the Eng Teacher would give it a C-) but hopefully you get the idea, and appreciate knowing what is
going on with me. A special thanks and shout out to Annette Roth and Paul Brunner and especially
Susan Giles for helping me get thru this rough patch. Much much Love, Carolyn Ruth
Carolyn Ruth Hunt
Residence: 5343 Hamilton Ave, HP 2217, Cincinnati, OH 45224
513-853-2974
Website: CarolyRruthHunt.com
Dear
My life this year has been very routine, one day being pretty much like the next, and some better or worse than others, but most changes have not been for the better. The good days come from calls and visits from friends and family, afternoons with symphony and opera on WGUC, and some very caring nurses and aides. The bad days come from the lonely days and the impatient, uncaring aides, of which there are too many. Just like you hear on the national news, nursing home staff are leaving because they are not paid enough and they are having added work dumped on them. We used to have 2 aids per shift for 15 people and now there’s only 1 aid per shift for 15 people. So they have ½ the time to do more intensive work to care for me with my blindness. More work and less care. Nobody is very happy.
Healthwise, in January I had a severe negative reaction to a medication for a small UTI infection. The doctor insisted I take the antibiotic (Bactrim). I said no, I’m allergic, but he insisted. My reaction to the second pill presented in my kidneys and I got very, very, sick. Then, of course, he believed me. They had to give me a drip for 36 hours for dehydration and even though the doctor took me off of the Bactrim, I was sick for two weeks and it took me a good month to get back to normal.
I had an ischemic attack and had strange visual hallucinations. I knew something was wrong but they wouldn’t go away. I was able, through tremendous effort, to get to the eye doctor to check my glaucoma, which has progressed so that I can now only see shadows in front of a bright back light. The visual hallucinations were a normal symptom of the progression of the glaucoma and, gratefully, they have since stopped.
Generally, my energy has declined quite a bit and my neuropathy in my hands and feet has gotten worse. The medication that I take to relieve the pain from the neuropathy, Gabapentin, messes with my mind and my memory, so I take as little as possible and try to endure the pain.
My dear friend Liz Ragouzis passed away in March. Liz and I both sang in the Emmanuel Choir since 1962, and for the last 20 years she has attended the Cincinnati Symphony with me and Annette. The memorial service was held in September at Emmanuel Presbyterian and through the miracle of technology and help from Annette and her daughter Caroline, I was able to attend the memorial virtually. I was also able to visit with her son Edgar on the phone and her daughter Mary came to visit me in November.
They’ve kept us pretty much isolated until this spring. We’ve been open and closed and open and closed as COVID was caught in a resident or employee. It was December 28th when Twin Towers residents were able to get the first Pfizer vaccine. Three weeks later I got my second shot and my booster this November.
I’ve only gotten to see Willa once or twice since the COVID shutdown, once was on my 91st birthday. Willa, Annette, and Caroline visited and brought a birthday cake while Susan attended my birthday “party” virtually.
In November, Susan and Daniel drove from High Springs in North Florida towing their 5 x 6 foot trailer behind their Honda Element and loaded it up with my files, pictures, and slides from my small storage closet and room. Susan found my box of family history documents that I thought I had lost in the move to nursing care. I am really, really grateful for all of the work that they did. It was slow getting that heavy trailer back down to Florida. Those boxes will give us more material to add to the website. We’ve done a lot of work on it since last year and we’ll be adding a lot more in the coming months. Check it out at carolynruthhunt.com to see how it’s developing.
I have really enjoyed the letters, phone calls, and visits that have come throughout the year from everyone. Please keep them coming. They are the highlight of my days. The best time to call me is between 2:15 and 4 o’clock, any day.
While my life has not been great this year, I have so many happy memories from my life to dwell on, recent and distant, with all of my friends and family. My life just wouldn’t have been the same without you in it.