his lap as he read to her from an illustrated book of fairy tales, and Garland became so enraged at her father and daughter that she had to retreat from the parlor.
âI have to go,â Garland said, then picked up her briefcase and walked out of the room.
Chapter 14
O n a hot May morning, a week before her daughter graduated from Lovewood, Garland stopped her station wagon outside a storage barn, and she and Elana loaded up the car with a shipment from Sears, Roebuckâtowels, gauze, bars of soap, boxes of cornstarch, and bottles of calamine lotion. Elana had ordered and paid for the supplies because in March an outbreak of measles had swept through the shacks of the tenant farmers, and Elana wanted to be prepared if it happened again. Last evening, a farmer had informed Garland that some children had rashes.
When Garland learned that Elana had acquired nursing skills at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, she asked her to help care for the farm families. There were only two Negro physicians for all of Broward County, and they drove hundreds of miles of unpaved roads to make house calls and oversaw Provident Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, the one local facility that accepted colored patients. So Elana sewed up gashes and sterilized wounds, dispensed aspirin, and assisted Hazee Thomas, who, when she wasnât at her juke, was a midwife. Owing to a lack of iodine in their diet, the elderly developed goiters, and Elana made sure they ate enough table salt. She preached that cleanliness was not just next to godliness, it could prevent family or neighbors from taking sick; and she sang the praises of Coke syrup for nausea and castor oil for almost anything else: add two tablespoons of it to a cup of warm milk to get rid of tapeworms; heat some in a saucepan and rub it into arthritic joints to alleviate pain, or below the belly of a woman cramped up with her monthly.
Garland said, âWe donât pay your husband enough for you to buy supplies. Please send me the bill.â
âThey werenât expensive.â Elana had used some of the money that Julian had given her, but she didnât want to tell Garland. From her phone conversations with her son, Elana concluded that Julian was involved with Kendall, and apparently Garland didnât approve, because she had complained to Elana that on a few occasions she hadnât been able to find her daughter on weekends.
On the stream bank down from the shacks, boys and girls spotted with measles were taking turns in the metal washtubs. The water was cloudy from the cornstarch Elana poured in to relieve itching. Mothers were bathing their children, but thirty kids were milling around whining and scratching themselves, and the tubs had to be emptied and refilled after each use, so Elana pitched in. Dabbing the childrenâs rashes with a washcloth flooded her with a joy she hadnât felt since Julian was a child, and as she rubbed a bar of Lux soap on a boyâs chest, she remembered bathing her son, and a Yiddish term of endearment slipped out of her mouth.
âIs that good, bubbeleh ?â she asked.
The boy pouted. âI ainât bubbewhoâs-it. I be Talbert.â
âI apologize, Talbert.â
Grown-ups had gathered on the bank, all of them watching Elana bathe Talbert and dry him off with one of the new towels. The dark faces watched Elana with a wariness that baffled her, and later, in the station wagon, she asked Garland if she had offended her audience.
âThey were in shock. Negro women wash white children. You bathing a colored child is news. White women down here think theyâre above that.â
âI was a week old when my mother or father left me on the steps of an orphanage in a box. Who in this world do you imagine I feel better than?â
Garland brought a picnic lunch when they visited the farmers, saying that it was the least she could do, but Elana, intimately acquainted with loneliness, recognized a fellow
âI have to go,â Garland said, then picked up her briefcase and walked out of the room.
Chapter 14
O n a hot May morning, a week before her daughter graduated from Lovewood, Garland stopped her station wagon outside a storage barn, and she and Elana loaded up the car with a shipment from Sears, Roebuckâtowels, gauze, bars of soap, boxes of cornstarch, and bottles of calamine lotion. Elana had ordered and paid for the supplies because in March an outbreak of measles had swept through the shacks of the tenant farmers, and Elana wanted to be prepared if it happened again. Last evening, a farmer had informed Garland that some children had rashes.
When Garland learned that Elana had acquired nursing skills at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, she asked her to help care for the farm families. There were only two Negro physicians for all of Broward County, and they drove hundreds of miles of unpaved roads to make house calls and oversaw Provident Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, the one local facility that accepted colored patients. So Elana sewed up gashes and sterilized wounds, dispensed aspirin, and assisted Hazee Thomas, who, when she wasnât at her juke, was a midwife. Owing to a lack of iodine in their diet, the elderly developed goiters, and Elana made sure they ate enough table salt. She preached that cleanliness was not just next to godliness, it could prevent family or neighbors from taking sick; and she sang the praises of Coke syrup for nausea and castor oil for almost anything else: add two tablespoons of it to a cup of warm milk to get rid of tapeworms; heat some in a saucepan and rub it into arthritic joints to alleviate pain, or below the belly of a woman cramped up with her monthly.
Garland said, âWe donât pay your husband enough for you to buy supplies. Please send me the bill.â
âThey werenât expensive.â Elana had used some of the money that Julian had given her, but she didnât want to tell Garland. From her phone conversations with her son, Elana concluded that Julian was involved with Kendall, and apparently Garland didnât approve, because she had complained to Elana that on a few occasions she hadnât been able to find her daughter on weekends.
On the stream bank down from the shacks, boys and girls spotted with measles were taking turns in the metal washtubs. The water was cloudy from the cornstarch Elana poured in to relieve itching. Mothers were bathing their children, but thirty kids were milling around whining and scratching themselves, and the tubs had to be emptied and refilled after each use, so Elana pitched in. Dabbing the childrenâs rashes with a washcloth flooded her with a joy she hadnât felt since Julian was a child, and as she rubbed a bar of Lux soap on a boyâs chest, she remembered bathing her son, and a Yiddish term of endearment slipped out of her mouth.
âIs that good, bubbeleh ?â she asked.
The boy pouted. âI ainât bubbewhoâs-it. I be Talbert.â
âI apologize, Talbert.â
Grown-ups had gathered on the bank, all of them watching Elana bathe Talbert and dry him off with one of the new towels. The dark faces watched Elana with a wariness that baffled her, and later, in the station wagon, she asked Garland if she had offended her audience.
âThey were in shock. Negro women wash white children. You bathing a colored child is news. White women down here think theyâre above that.â
âI was a week old when my mother or father left me on the steps of an orphanage in a box. Who in this world do you imagine I feel better than?â
Garland brought a picnic lunch when they visited the farmers, saying that it was the least she could do, but Elana, intimately acquainted with loneliness, recognized a fellow
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