Red Burtts Storys

I didn’t plan on writing this but something happened this morning, I have a screened in porch my son built for us that faces out into the forest, I have seen many wild animals in the two short years we have lived here they include a Black Bear, Deer, Raccoons, Skunks, Wild Turkey’s and a Bobcat.
I am a morning person; I have always loved the early morning especially in the woods or on an Ocean Beach, a few days ago at 6:30 AM I was sitting on my porch having my morning coffee when very silently out of the trees a Mother Doe appeared followed by two small Fawns, I think the Mother knew I was there as she stared right at the porch twitching her tail and ready to flee at the first sign of movement, I remained perfectly still then as suddenly as she froze when she sensed me she decided there was no threat and she just as quickly resumed her nibbling of grass and leaves. Watching this Mother Doe and her two Fawns somehow reminded me of a women who also for many years always seemed to have her young around her, if not her own children than her grandchildren, she was like a Mother Doe, I will tell you about her.

Once many years ago there was a young girl, a very pretty and beautiful girl who grew into a fine strong loving, kind and gentle women, as a young women when she walked into a restaurant or a room she turned heads it was often said by those who knew her “that she looked like a movie star” her beauty never went to her head, she never tried to be pretty or beautiful she just was, she loved life, she loved children especially her own she never had a bad word to say about anybody, if she was hurt, physically or emotionally she would hide it, if she cried she would find some way to privately shed her tears, she never looked for sympathy, this women was a good women, this women was a strong women, she grew up during the great depression those were bad times for the working families but her little family was especially hard hit as her father was unable to work or provide for the family due to a very lengthy illness, her mother went on welfare and somehow they managed to survive the bad years. I believe that the hardships her family endured during the 1930’s is what made this women the person that she was, this women was a survivor.

World War II ended the depression but with no man in the house her family was still struggling, at that time a child could leave school at the age of fourteen if they could prove “hardship” the young girl obtained all of the required paper work, she then got what was called “a working permit” the Mt Auburn Hospital in Cambridge Mass hired her as a kitchen worker delivering meals to bed ridden patients, she left school at the age of fourteen, she never returned, her wisdom, her education, her common sense, her respect towards others didn’t come from a school book they all came from life itself.

At the age of fifteen the young girl met a young man who had just turned eighteen, they flirted, then they began dating at the age of seventeen she married this young man, just before her eighteenth birthday she gave birth to her first child, a baby boy “The Doe and her Fawn”

Years flew by, three more children came along, then the grandchildren, eleven of them then the great grandchildren, eight of them, all through these years this women never wavered from the gentle, kind quiet loving human being that she was, as a young mother her instincts came from within just as they do with all living things she didn’t have to be told how to protect, love or care for her young she just knew as the mothers of all living creatures do “the Doe does it with her Fawns”

The young girl and her husband were blessed with excellent health for most of their life, they watched their family grow, they had their bad times and they had their problems along the way as all people do but they were never alarmists they were never worriers or brooders they just got on with life, right or wrong the young girl and her husband did it, they did it their way.

As with everything in life nothing is forever, I drank my coffee that morning and watched the Doe with her Fawns, just as suddenly as they appeared they slowly vanished back into the forest, all was quiet, my coffee cup was empty, day would turn into night, the sun would rise tomorrow, a new day would be born.

The Fawns I watched that morning would grow into adults they would leave the security and protection of their mother they would now face the forest on their own, the Doe would now herself age with the passing of time then the day would come when she would go off to some secluded place in the forest, she would lay down, she would close her eyes and sleep, never to awaken, the Doe would die as all living things do.
So it was with the young girl, I was there when she left this world, I held her hand, she died just as she had lived, bravely uncomplaining and quietly, the young girl was my wife, we were together for 66 years, I miss her every minute of every day.

I will look again each morning for the Doe and her Fawns but I don’t think they will be back.

My Wife
Barbara Edna (McFerren) Burtt
1929 ~ 2013