Ruth Pruiett - Memories
Part 7
Shortly after Lin was born, my Mom and Pop Pruiett started working on us, particularly on Ralph, encouraging us to get out of that big house into a smaller house, so we started house hunting. Needless to say, it is very difficult shopping for a house with an infant and a three-year old. So we ended up with a tiny little house, which I hated for eight years. We looked at the house one evening and everyone else saw it as a perfect place that we could afford. So we bought the house at 801 Lily Lane in Withamsville.
While there, I thought, at least we can have a garden, so we hired someone to come in and plow up the back yard, not knowing that we were tearing up our septic tank leach lines. Who knew? We had no experience with a septic tank. Our back yard could hold water for days after a rain from that experience but the boys managed to find other places to play. Needless to say, we never had a garden.
In January 1956, I started working as a county health nurse for Clermont County. I covered the northern half of the County and Agnella DeFelice covered the southern half. We had a very progressive Health Commissioner, Dr. Kramer, who tried to convince the County Commissioners to consider building a hospital in the county, to no avail. In August of 1957, Dr. Kramer became disheartened with the system and retired or quit. At this time, I also became disenchanted and decided to retire. Soon after, I went back to doing private duty until August of 1959, when I went to work for the Veteran's Hospital, where I worked until I retired on disability in 1974, due to increasing problems with my neck and back. I truly enjoyed working in the Psychiatric Department, where I had a wonderful relationship with other nurses and particularly with my supervisor, Helen Tholemeier. She had a lot of faith in my ability and I was there only about three months when she put me in as acting Head Nurse on 7N. It soon became apparent that the position was a permanent one.
In 1960 we were finally able to move away from Withamsville. We moved into this house at 809 Smiley Avenue in Forest Park on December 20, 1960. We had to hurry and get the place ready for Christmas. Mom and Pop Pruiett, who were living in Florida, came on the 23rd and we had most of the family here for dinner on Christmas Day. What a fiasco, but we didn't really mind at all. The kids were 8, 11 and almost 15. That was a long time ago. I only wish that I had that kind of energy today.
Our children grew up here and managed to get good educations and good jobs for themselves, but I could only wish that the boys could live as close to me now as does Lin and her family. But we can only do the best that we can and I don't suppose that will ever happen.
On reading over what I have written and looking back over my story, I realize something that I was somewhat unaware of, that along life's journey, I had some wonderful people helping me make the decisions that I made. One of those people that I failed to mention in my story was the lady who gave me my first job at Kresge's ten cent store, Norma Mueller, who is still living in a retirement center in Mason, Ohio. I've forgotten her maiden name, but she married a man named Paul Mueller. They were good friends of Rose and Elmer Young.
Ruth Parker Pruiett
September 2000