Palmer Family Grew Slowly

Jim Palmer at six months

        Dad and Mom loved kids and worked with many through the years before and after their marriage.  However, having a family of their own was not an easy process, as it turned out.  When they left the Mine Hollow in 1932, at Christmas time, a few months after their marriage to spend the holidays with Mom’s parents in Brigham City, they were thrilled knowing that their first child was on it’s way. But during their holiday in Brigham, Mom began to experience warning signs of a miscarriage and their first little son came into the world stillborn.  Mom stayed with her parents for several weeks of recuperation and Dad returned to Park Valley to find work. That spring they bought the Seely Ranch in Rosette.  The following year, in February of 1934, Jim was born in Tremonton, and what a joy he was to Dad and Mom. 

Paul & Jim in 1937

            Two years later, February 1936, Mom was expecting another baby, but what a surprise, when twins, Paul and Paula came into the world on February 17^th.  Dad was thrilled to spread the word especially about their first daughter, but the next day he was called back from the ranch as one of the babies was in trouble.  When he arrived at the hospital, he found it was not Paul, the weaker of the babies, but little Paula.  Apparently the nurses had been so concerned with Paul’s care that they failed to give her the needed fluids, and when discovered, she was so dehydrated that it was to late to save her life.  Dad and Mom  wondered how that could possibly happen in a new modern hospital.  Sorrowfully, Dad took her home to Park Valley for her burial, while Mom and Paul remained in the hospital.

Paula Palmer's burial

            Two and a half years later, in June 1938, I, (Junelle) came into the world at Brigham City, three months premature, a tiny three pound baby, the size of a baby doll that Dad could support in his hand. A blood problem had come into play, called RH factor, and only one of my lungs was developed enough to function, so the head nurse stayed with me for hours to blow into my mouth and keep me breathing, if possible.  It was a grave situation.  I was immediately given a blessing and a name by my grandfather, Wesley Wight.  In the weeks that followed my condition improved and I was finally able to go home.

Junelle Palmer

            The summer that I was five, Mom went into the hospital to have her tonsils out and our neighbor Madeline Olague was also there for the birth of her new baby, Rozina.  I told people that I didn’t think it was fair that Madeline got a baby at the hospital and they didn’t give Mom one! I wanted a baby at our house too.

            Because of the fear of complications with the RH Factor, years passed, then when I was about eight, Mom was again expecting, but one summer day, complications began, Mom was hemorrhaging. All that Dad told us kids was that Dr. Rasmussen was coming to take care of Mom and we were to stay nearby, but away from the house.  The doctor flew out from Brigham City and landed at Park Valley where Uncle Joe picked him up in his car.  He came and cared for Mom and an hour or two later he left.  Our tiny premature baby brother (who Mom called Bruce) was stillborn and Dad buried him on the ranch.  Dad came out in the yard to get us and took us into the bedroom where we knelt by her bedside, and as Dad prayed, tears rolled down his face, and he pleaded with the Lord to save her life.  I remember knowing it was a very serious situation. After staying on bed rest for several weeks, she was still very weak, but began to be able to get up to do a few things around the house with our help.  I remember separating clothes into batches and putting them into the ringer washer on the back porch and helping to hang the clothes on the clothes line in the yard. Dad cooked, I washed dishes and we swept the floors.  We all helped while she recovered. 

            When I was almost twelve, Mom told me one spring day that she was expecting a baby and would I help her make little clothes during the summer.  In the fall she came home from Dr. Rasmussen’s office and announced that she was expecting twins!  We were all excited and we began to make duplicates for the baby clothes, quilts, diapers, etc.

Layne & Lynn

             We really didn’t know that it was risky for Mom to try to have more children, only that she and Dad wanted more family.  It kind’a became a now or never situation  as Mom has since told me.  It was no mistake when Lynn and Layne came along when Dad was fifty and Mom was forty.  She put her life on the line and they prayed for a blessing.  We were all blessed when they came into our family in November of 1950.  We played with them, helped with them, and always brought home treats for them when we went away to high school, college and missions.  They were always a blessing to Dad and Mom and kept them young at heart.  We learned at an early age that prayers and blessings were a reality.  Morning prayers were always said kneeling at our chairs with their backs turned to the table.  I am sure it’s the pattern Dad learned from his parents from his early years in their family home.

            I can understand their feelings personally.  After we lost our little Robert Alan in 1973, the doctor told us there would be no more children, but we wanted another child, perhaps another son, and through the miracle of fertility medication, our many prayers were answered when John came into our family in April of 1976, and our girls became our little helpers.