The Red Flannel Rag

Rob Crawford and Goldie Morris Crawford (circa 1945)

bladder attack and died soon after his surgery.

His dying was my first experience with death. When Uncle Rob died, the hospital

called John I. Myers. He mounted his horse and rode to tell Aunt Goldie and the

neighbors the sad news. He arrived at our house at four-o-clock in the morning. He

pecked on the bedroom window and told Mom and Dad that Rob had died. This was an

incredibly sad event. I remember Mom and Dad got out of bed and went into the next

room where they sobbed for what seemed like hours.

The funeral home brought Uncle Rob’s body home for the wake, and Mom lifted

me up to look at him and to touch him. It felt so strange to touch his stiff cold face that

had been warm and soft when he played with me just a day or so before.

The time for his funeral arrived, and the undertaker came with the hearse to take

his body to the church. Mom didn’t attend the funeral. She designated herself as the

sitter for the smaller children who were not attending. As the pallbearers carried Uncle

Rob’s casket out the front door of Aunt Goldie’s house toward the hearse, Mom was

holding the children back out of the way. She was crying. When the men stepped off the

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