Raymond

[continued from here]


(Click on image to enlarge)
Gust Lindborg's draft registration card from September 1918. Image from WWI Draft Cards.

Back in Ainsworth, Gust Lindborg's blacksmith shop was doing well, and he continued to make a little extra money renting out his dance hall for special events — including monthly meetings of the Ainsworth milk producers, and the wedding reception when the Baesslers' daughter, Emily, married Henry Schultz.

Life in the Lindborg home seems to have gone in its usual way — quietly busy — in spite of the war excitement. The blacksmith who kept the farm machines in working order played a part in the agricultural production that had become so vital to the war effort, and with a wife and four small children dependent on him, Gust could hope for leniency from the draft board.

But disease cares nothing for dependents. In late January 1918 Gust developed appendicitis. His case was so acute that he was taken to a hospital in Valparaiso (probably Christian Hospital) and underwent surgery there. For several days he lay dangerously ill. Anna Lindborg no doubt tried to put on a brave face for the children, but she had all the more reason to be frightened as she was then nearly five months' pregnant with their fifth child.

The danger passed, however; Gust began to mend, and by February 1 the Gazette could report that he was "doing nicely." Anna breathed a sigh of relief; Gust came home; life picked up where it had left off.

In April the Lindborg dance hall was the scene of a "box social and entertainment" intended to raise money to buy a Victrola — for whom, the report did not say.

And then the Lindborgs dropped out of the news for over a month. The next news we hear is good: on June 12, 1918, Anna gave birth to a baby boy. He would be named Raymond.

To 11-year-old Mildred, her new baby brother must have seemed like a living doll. About a decade later, she put together a little album of family photos, all captioned by hand in gold ink. The album included a photo of Raymond as a toddler — perhaps two years old — and the special attention Mildred gave that photo hints at how she doted on the little boy:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image from a private collection.

"Waiting patiently" — "School" — "The rag-pickers" — "Don't cry" — family in-jokes, probably, of the kind we've all developed out of the silly little things said by and to children we love.

The Lindborg family was now complete, although of course they didn't know it.


Sources:
♦ "Ainsworth Farmers Elect Officers." Hobart Gazette 26 Jan. 1917.
♦ "Births." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.
♦ "Births." Hobart News 13 June 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 18 Apr. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 1 Feb. 1918.
♦ "Schultz-Baessler Nuptial." Hobart Gazette 20 Apr. 1917.