Photo by Zen
Page 20
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David [Spaulding] came back to Pasadena in January,
1918, enrolling at U.S.C. He met Isal Akey shortly after
this and during his courting days he became healthy
by walking the six miles to her home and back to his
dorm room at P. C. (Pasadena College) in an evening.
He also was scoutmaster of a Boy Scout Troop, which
included Isal’s brother, Vernon, destined to die during
a hike of Pasadena College students in 1920. . . .
In 1918 Father [Albert Starr Spaulding] sold the Allen
Avenue home and took his family to Navalencia, where
he planned to build a town. In the spring of [1919], the
flu epidemic was rampant. Mother Pearl nursed her
family through this dread disease, finally becoming
ill herself.
David was in medical school at U.S.C. in the fall of
1918 and in the Army Reserve. He went north to visit
the family. Mother clung to him---could hardly let
him go. This was the last time he saw her alive.
Mother passed away in March, 1919. The doctor had
been summoned but arrived too late. I was not quite
three years old---I do not remember her. They tell
me I cried and asked the doctor not to spank “my
mama,” as he was trying to get her to breathe.
Just before she expired, she said, “I’m dying.” Mother
married at the age of twenty-one, lovingly caring for
six step-children and having four of her own by the
time she was thirty years of age.
Father had everything planned, believing he would
pass away first, being so much older than his Pearl
. . . But God alone knows are appointed time to die.
Louise and Eleanor . . . Pasadena