A Life-Threatening Disruption

There’s a month-long break in the letters at this point.  June and Art don’t return to writing again until November 9.  Something happened that weekend that dramatically interrupted all routines of school and letter writing.

Studio photo of June.

Throughout the summer and into the early fall, June suffered from intermittent and unexplained pains and aches.  Her mother had taken her to the family doctor, but he was unable to make a diagnosis.  They assumed it was nothing serious.

June came home to Riverhead for the weekend, probably arriving Friday night.  On Saturday morning, she didn’t feel well and called Art to cancel plans for the night.  Concerned, Art bought flowers and drove out to Riverhead to see her.  But when he arrived, June was feeling better and busy cleaning the house.  She was embarrassed, thinking it might look to Art like she was making excuses to get out of a date.

Shortly after Art left, June suddenly felt very sick -- much worse than before --  and her parents rushed her to the hospital.

The situation turned out to be much more serious than expected—even life-threatening.  Her appendix had ruptured, releasing toxins throughout her system.  Over the next couple of weeks, she was operated on at least twice and had to remain quiet in the hospital to recuperate.  June doesn’t return to Traphagen until November 9, missing four weeks of school.

It’s probably safe to assume that Art visited her often in the hospital.

(On Monday, June and Art and their romance…)

Correspondence resumes in 31 days.  During this letter-writing hiatus, we’ll fill in some background on June and Art.

© 2010 Lee Price