Chapter Four The Visit. When I went to the hospital for a blood check for the first time after it was confirmed that I was pregnant it was found that I had Rhesus Negative B blood which I was told was rare and Cliff was Rhesus Positive O. I was still ignorant about things like that but from what I could gather the bloods mixed together in the baby could cause problems. Things were not so advanced 70 years ago as they are now and I had to go back to the hospital in the next town each week to be monitored which meant more money being spent on bus fares that we could ill afford. It was a worrying time and yet I still had the feeling that I was being looked after, but by who or what I did not know. During the September of the year I was pregnant my sister wrote and asked me if she could bring her son and stop with us for a day or two because she was still living in London but she was bringing her little lad to see his grandparents who lived in the next town where I had been evacuated to and where she came to us after being buried alive with my father during the London Blitz but saved by “Blue” our lovely cat (tale about this as told previously in my book). I went to ask permission of Kerry and he was all for it and told me to use one of the bedrooms that was spare because they had beds in them. I had NEVER offered to go and look because they were nothing to do with me and I was going to make do with the settee and easy chair on our part of the house but as Kerry was the owner I just wanted to know if it would be OK before I wrote back. I was surprised at his generous offer and thrilled to bits to find a beautiful four poster bed in one of them that had a feather mattress. I decided to use that one myself when my sister came and she could use our bed because she would sleep with her son who was only about 4 years old at the time. I put the hot water bottle in the feather bed for nearly a week to make sure it was well aired before Cliff and I slept in it because it had not been used for some time. I also inspected every crevasse of it to make sure there was no unwanted many legged visitors. My sister came but after staying for a couple of nights she said she would be going to stay with her husbands parents because she thought the place was haunted. She told me I was nuts for staying there but deep down I knew she was concerned for me and I had to reassure her that I would be OK. I did not want to argue with her mainly because when Cliff and I got up the two mornings she was here the handle on the bedroom door where we slept had been put on the latch and not fully closed as was Cliffs habit each night. The weather by that time was getting rather chilly but I still went out for a walk each day with "Prince" by my side with a housebrick in his mouth that he would drop every so often to give it a lick and I assume to give his jaws a rest. How the heck he managed to hold one in his mouth at all baffled me because a house brick weighs quite a lot even for a human to carry in their hand never mind a small terrier in its mouth. The villagers got to know me and were more friendly and started waving and wishing me "Good day". Even Johnny who owned the pub opposite started to wave to me every day. I was beginning to feel more accepted by them but not I am afraid by Cliff's Dad. He still kept his distance. He was never rude but he always seemed wary of me. Whether it was because I was NOT submissive like his wife (my m-i-l) or not I dont know.
Interesting to see Rhesus referred to in text. Do they still use the word in Britain? Here we just refer to "Rh". Did the pregnancy turn out well, and did you have any further problem with future children with jaundice/icterus?
They use both Rhesus and Rh here Don. I only had the one son and he will be 68 in October He has been today to take me to the doctors because I have another chest infection. That is the third one this year.This growing old can be a pain at times.
With me saying that I was pregnant seemed to set something going Patsy but I will be telling about that in a future chapter, if it is not boring folk and you want me to carry on.