Chapter 5
Helen Garrison was taking her sister-in-law, Marian, to the doctor.
Marian’s husband Jerry had died over a year ago, but Marian still cried herself to sleep every night.
She helped them out in the general store by stocking the shelves and helping to dust the shelves but didn’t try and interact with any of their customers.
She was withdrawn and wasn’t active with anything or anyone.
Helen had a hard time drawing her into doing anything, sometimes she had to push her to take a bath or change her clothes into clean ones.
They waited patiently in the waiting room of the clinic.
It just so happened that Marley was there with her triplets.
Cooper had made a buggy that she could take them in to make it easier for her to go to the general store or even just to go and see Heather or Sally to visit with three babies.
For the first time, Marian showed some interest in something.
She couldn’t seem to look away from the three babies in the baby buggy.
Marley was busy with one or the other at all times.
Marian couldn’t look away when she actually fed all three babies at once with bottles.
Helen laughed as she had to burp them separately.
“Marley, you take care of those triplets like you’ve done it all before!” Helen told her and smiled as she took care of the three babies with ease.
“Well, it was either sink or swim when I delivered three instead of two babies, Helen. I’m a quick learner, thank heavens, and the more I do it, the better I get.
The babies are patient at my blunders and let me get by while I take care of their brothers or sister.
I’m learning while I take care of them…it’s a work in progress.
” Marley told her and went back to feeding them.
Marian spoke up…which was not her usual state of action. “You are very lucky to have three such beautiful babies.”
“Thank you, we are very proud to have had a safe delivery of all three babies. We were worried that the babies would be too small, twins sometimes are, but to have triplets…we were really scared that they would be too small for them to even live. We were very lucky and God blessed us many times over. We don’t forget our blessings and thank him every day in our prayers.
” Marley told her and smiled at her. She noticed that she was very quiet.
Something was wrong here with the woman and her steady vision of her babies.
It made Marley want to gather them up and protect her from this woman.
Thankfully it was time for Helen to take Marian into see the doctor then. She took her by the arm and led her into the examination room. Marian wanted to stay by the babies, but Helen was determined and forced her to go.
Doctor Flynn saw Helen with Marian. He had talked to Helen about her sister-in-law.
He suspected that she was suffering from a deep depression from the loss of her husband.
Seeing her in person, his fears were realized.
The detached look in her eyes, the disheveled appearance of her, “What brings you here today?” He asked, but he already knew. His eyes met Helen’s worried ones.
“It’s Marian…she doesn’t want to get up each morning…
she doesn’t care what she looks like…she really doesn’t care about anything.
I hear her crying herself to sleep each night, even a year after Jerry’s death.
She doesn’t care about anything. She showed her first bit of interest in Marley’s triplets in the waiting room this morning before we came into your examination room.
” Helen told him. Marian didn’t care what she said. She just sat there.
“I fear the depression we talked about before has gotten worse. We need to snap her out of it, or she could become suicidal and take her own life.” Flynn told her sadly.
“You said she showed some interest in Marley’s triplets…
maybe that’s the answer. Marley could use some help in taking care of the three babies, at least in partial view.
Marley is amazing and has taken to having triplets like she did it every day, but even she could use a little help now and then.
You said she was in the waiting room…I’ll tell her about Marian and set it up for Marian to come to her home twice a week to help watch over the babies while she works in the garden.
I want Marley to be around to have Marian supervised while she takes care of the babies.
I think it will help wake her up to reality again.
Come back and let me know if she is doing any better.
I’ll also ask Marley to let me know how she is doing when she’s with the babies.
We’ll give it a month to see how she does.
It’s worth a shot at least.” Flynn told her and saw Helen nod.
They left and Marley and her three babies came in.
He had fun weighing them and checking them over to see how much they had grown in the last month. He loved to see how they were thriving under her care and love. They had all gained at least a pound since they were born…the boys had gained a pound and a half.
“Marley, what ever you’re doing, keep it up. They’re putting on weight and doing very well. How are you and Cooper doing? Learning how to get along without so much sleep?” He asked and laughed.
“Pretty much. I can take a nap when I can get all three babies asleep at the same time…it’s not often, but it does happen.
At night, if one of the babies doesn’t need changing or feeding, another one does.
We do take turns taking care of the babies so one of us at least gets some sleep.
I let Cooper sleep as much as I can because he can’t sleep on a horse on his rounds or as he walks around the town.
We’re learning to get by on less sleep than we used to, I’ll tell you that!
” Marley told him and carefully put each of the triplets back into the buggy.
“Marley I need your help with a woman in our town. You met her in the waiting room, she’s Helen’s sister-in-law.
Her husband died a year ago, and she’s still crying over his death.
She doesn’t want to get up in the morning or get dressed.
She takes no care with her hair or dress; she doesn’t care about anything.
She has a severe case of depression. Today in the waiting room was the first time she showed an interest in anything with your babies.
I was hoping that you would let her come over to your house twice a week to watch your babies while you worked in the garden canning all those vegetables.
You would still be close to watch over her and her interaction with the babies…
I don’t want her left alone with them; I’m not asking that.
I just want her to get involved with something that will bring her out of her state of depression.
I’m hoping that after she starts to take care of your babies, she’ll start to take an interest in other things too. What do you think?”
Marley was quiet for a few minutes. “Doc, I don’t mind helping, but I won’t put my babies at risk at any time.
I felt that something wasn’t quite right with the woman who kept staring at my babies.
Now I know what it was…I have no problem with her watching them while I can vegetables.
They’ll be in the buggy right there where I can see her and them.
She can change diapers and even give them a bottle under my watchful eyes.
But if she does anything that I don’t like…
she’s out of there. Is that understood?” She didn’t want there to be any misconceptions with Flynn about that.
She’d shoot her before anything happened to her kids.
“I understand, Marley. I would never put your babies or children at risk. If at any time that you don’t feel comfortable with her at your house and with your children, she will not be allowed back again.
Just say the word. Thank you for trying to help her.
” Flynn told her. “I’ll see you back next month for the babies. ”
Marley nodded and left. She had several bushel baskets of vegetables to can when she got back home. She also had some thinking about Helen’s sister-in-law and how she was going to make it safe for her babies when she came.
Helen showed up bright and early the next day with Marian. Marian had brushed her hair and put on a clean dress in honor of coming to see the babies. She was excited about the babies. Marley was already hard at work with several baskets of vegetables.
“Good morning, Helen…Marian. I appreciate you coming to help watch the babies, Marian. As you can see, I have a lot of vegetables to get canned for the winter. I just fed them and changed their diapers. They’re taking a little nap.
I brought out a chair for you to sit in and watch them.
There’s a pile of clean diapers, and a bucket to put the dirty ones in.
There’s also a bottle for each of the babies in the buggy for when they wake up and want to be fed again.
I put Charlie in a blue blanket, Cass in a green blanket, and Lyra in a pink blanket so that you tell them apart.
Do you have any questions?” Marley asked her.
Marian didn’t speak, but she did shake her head no.
“Thanks, Marley. I’ll come back around noon to get her, if that’s all right with you. If you get done sooner, just walk her back to the store.” Helen told Marley and Marley nodded. Marian sat in the chair and touched each of the babies’ head as if they were made of glass.
“I do that too. Their hair is so soft and so is their skin…I love kissing and touching them. Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a dream to see all three of them lying there.
I love them so much…I did as soon as I saw and heard them crying when they were born.
” Marley told Marian as she started back with canning the green beans.
Marian was quiet for a while, then started talking quietly.
“I never had any children. I did have several miscarriages. I cried after every single one. I felt like my children were slipping through my fingers and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it.
The doctor said there wasn’t anything wrong with me or Jerry, it was just one of those things, but when it happens over and over again…
you don’t believe him. You see other women with children and your arms are empty…
you resent the fact that they had children, sometimes too many to take care of…
you pray to God, you try and make a bargain with God.
God if you’ll just give me a baby…I’ll stop gossiping, I’ll stop complaining, I’ll be the best mother and wife I can be.
But nothing worked. And then, he takes Jerry from me.
I was a good wife to Jerry, and I loved him…
really loved him, but it wasn’t enough.”
Marley let her talk as she worked. She felt like Marian had bottled up all these words for a long time. Maybe getting them out would help her get well.
“I felt like that when I was in the orphanage.” Marley told her. “I wondered what I had done wrong that other kids had parents and I didn’t. Why did God love those kids more than me? What did I do wrong that my mother and father got rid of me like they did?”
“I didn’t know that you were an orphan. I thought that Nimrod and Kyra Harper were your parents and that you had a wonderful childhood out at their ranch.” Marian told her quietly and looked up at Marley as she canned the vegetables.
“I did have a great childhood, but only after I, no we were adopted by Nimrod and Kyra Harper here in Sheridan. I lived in New York for the first five years of my life in an orphanage. We slept in a room on the floor that held thirty other kids. It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. No yard to play in, in fact, we didn’t know how to play when we arrived here.
Kyra had to teach us how to play. We had the clothes on our backs, and they didn’t fit very well.
Grady had been looking after Brody and me, but we weren’t related.
None of us knew who our parents were or how we came to be in the orphanage.
” Marley told her and watched as Marian carefully changed the three babies and put on clean diapers and put the soiled ones in the bucket, then started feeding them one by one.
She approved how carefully she was caring for her children.
“If you grew up in New York, how did you come to be adopted in the Wyoming Territory?” Marian asked her. She was listening to what Marley was telling her. That was a good sign.
“The cities were so full of children that their parents couldn’t take care of…
orphanages couldn’t take care of them either.
They finally filled railroad cars with us…
they called us ‘throwaway children’ and brought us west in the hopes that farmers and ranchers might want to adopt us.
By the time the railroad car got to Sheridan, only three of us were left…
Grady, me, and Brody. They were getting ready to load us back on the railroad car and take us back to New York when Nimrod Harper showed up and said he’d take all three of us.
He had a wagon filled with supplies for the spring to take back home with him.
He and Kyra had lost three children over the years through bad winters, snake bite, and premature births.
They wanted children…this was one way to get them.
It was the best thing to ever happen to the three of us.
Did you or your husband ever think about adoption? ”
Marian held a baby up to burp. “Yes, we did, but just as we thought we were going to get a child…Jerry died. I felt like I lost my husband, my child, and my new life all at one time.”