Christmas 1927 was a year which lingers in my (LaVone’s) mind. My little sister Elvie Aurora who was 9 years old had passed away in November. She came home from Midway School on a Thursday with a severe headache and passed away on Saturday. She had spinal meningitis. Dr. Lindberg said it was not necessary to have her body embalmed as his wife would come to prepare her for burial. She was such a lovely lady. She put a little black silk dress with bright blue piping on her. A quarantine sign came upon our house. How I hated it! The day that Elvie was buried was very blizzardly but when we got to the cemetery we were surprised to see so many of our neighbors who had braved the elements and come to share our sorrow. Of course there could be no memorial service in the church because of the nature of the disease.

All of us kids wondered who would be next to get it. We girls didn’t want to go to our own bedrooms upstairs at night so we put chairs along the side of the bed in the biggest room so we could sleep the other way and be together. I remember talking late into the night wondering what we could to to ward off the disease. We decided that it might be good to spend as much time as possible outdoors in the fresh air so we skated, used our sleds, played snow games and skied.

I was so glad when the quarantine sign came off of the house. There was one other case of spinal meningitis, a doctor’s daughter in Fredric, a town not too far away. She passed away, too.

Gladys Fornell wrote a lovely little book about Elvie. She titled it, ‘“Morning Light.”’ I have a copy of it.

I could sense that Christmas of 1927 how much Mom and Dad missed Elvie but we knew she was completely well and singing Christmas carols with the angels in heaven. They were so thankful that no one else had become ill but they did not let this incident keep us from having a nice Christmas.

We knew that we would all be re-united with our little Elvie because of the greatest Christmas gift of all, Jesus, who later gave His life that we might have life everlasting!

A neighbor is defined as one who lives close by. Add an “l” and a “y” and it becomes neighborly which means friendly or helpful.

I’m thinking of some very good neighbors I had as I was growing up. When my little sister Elvie died of spinal meningitis we were quarantined and could not have a service in the church. The day of her burial was a very cold, blizzard day in November. When we arrived at the church all of our neighbors were there parked in their cars. They had gathered there to support us, to tell us they cared although it was a day that one would have rather stayed home.

My sister Elvie’s name was Elvie Aurora. It meant morning light. After she passed away from spinal meningitis my cousin Gladys who went to Columbia University in New York, wrote a most beautiful tribute to her. This was in 1927. She had it bound so beautifully and gave it to my folks. What a memory our little Elvie left!