I picked myself up and made my way upstairs. I must have looked awful because when Jessie saw me she was frightened. She soon jumped up out of that bed. I didn't tell her anything, I just fell into bed and rested a while. Soon I was up again and back to work. I thought it was time to see a doctor. I went over to doctor Ross and he examined me. He put his finger right on the spot and I nearly jumped off his table. He apologized and I tried to forget it because I was hoping he would cure my pain. He said he new what was wrong . I had colon trouble but he would put it right. He gave me medicine and told me how how I should take it. I followed his instructions perfectly and took the medicine every day but it didn't make any difference the pain went on just the same. 

On November 13 1932 our sixth baby was born and this time it was a baby girl. Jessie was happy about this because she had been wanting a girl for a long time. Now that you are all born you will know who Jessie is. Yes children, Jessie is your mother. The question of a name came up again. Her mother wanted to call her Constance and I wanted to call her Mary so we called her Constance Mary. 

I stayed with Dr. Ross for more than a year and took his medicine regular every day but there was no change in my condition. I still suffered the same pain in the same way.

Business had been falling off for some time. It lightened my work but cause me to worry. I had six children now and I was earning less money. My bench work was lighter but my house work went on just the same.

We now had two children going to school but that didn't make any difference their mother stayed in bed till the last minute. When she did get up she hadn't time to give them their breakfast properly and send them off to school in time, so she would give them a piece of bread and a drink of milk and send them off. This would cause me to blow up because they were my children and they were not being properly cared for. 

When the children had gone back to school at noon time mother would go to bed. She fooled herself that was was burdened down with six children and needed to rest. All the children were not at school and so I had to keep my eye on those running around. She would could down at four or half past and then get the supper ready.  Often in the summer time she would come down dressed up and put up sandwiches and she was going on a picnic. It would be five o'clock before she got out and the buses would be crowded with workers, therefore she would wait about twenty minutes before she could get a bus. She would take one of the boys with her for company but all the other children were left behind for me take care of. This would cause friction and we would quarrel. I would tell her that the food she parceled up should be put on the table for the supper and she should stay home and take care of the children and let me do the work. She thought she a right to go on a picnic. I told her that we could go out on a Sunday afternoon and take all the children and that would be enjoyment for all of them. Of course I had shown her that I could take care of the children and she did not worry when she left them behind. The only money that came into our house could only come off my bench but I could not be working on bench and looking after five children at the same time, therefore she was not helping her family. When she went on a picnic I had to cook the supper for myself and the other children. That is the way we lived and it was a miserable life. I prayed and prayed hard for peace. I had two pictures on the wall in the dinning room. One was a picture of the Sacred Heart and the other was a picture of the Blessed Virgin.  I knelt and prayed for hours on that hard floor before those two pictures. I could not leave my wife because I could not leave my children. It looked hopeless and when I prayed I told God I was asking for a miracle but all things are possible to God and he works in strange ways. 

When I look back on those unhappy days I ask myself, how did I live through it? I suffered pain every minute of every day.  The anguish of my home, my work and the worry of children. God must have given me the strength.

After being with doctor Ross more than a year I  went to see Dr. O'Brien. He examined me but I did not tell him how sever the pain was or he might have guessed what it was but I was always afraid of giving people the impression I was crying. Dr O'Brien told me it was Neuritis. He gave me medicine and told me to put a mustard plaster on the spot. I did what he told me to and took his medicine but it didn't make any difference the pain went on and got worse.

I had an easy chair in the dining room which I slept in when I worked all night. It was wooden chair with five lats at the back. Sometime when I was sitting in that chair that pain would strike hard and I would throw myself back.  In doing this I knocked the back out of the chair. 

Thousand of people in the city where now on relief and things got so bad for me that we had to go on relief. Since I was able to earn money I was given only so much relief.