The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 101
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Frank HI. Wardlaw
have seen the newspapers throughout the country. You would have en-
joyed reading them.
But there are so many stories left untold that I wanted to make sure
that some of them came to light.
First, I guess you would have wanted everyone to know the degree of
devotion in which you were held by Rosemary. Only she could witness
to the progressive afflictions set upon you, and in turn, upon her as
well, as she helped you struggle through our medical maze, both in
South Carolina as well as Austin. I recall a plaintive call from you when
a young lady doctor in Austin insisted that you give up whiskey. I guess
I never knew a nonalcoholic who enjoyed a drink so much. True alco-
holics drink in solitude-you drank in conviviality, and I felt I had
done you great service when I told you that it seemed to me a cruel and
unreasonable punishment; an injunction which I deemed medically
unwise for you to follow. Your sigh of relief was audible, near palpable
over the phone.
I guess none of your friends knew just how much of a healer you
were yourself. Aside from nurturing and launching books, you nur-
tured and supported people. I always went away from you and Rose-
mary feeling as though we had left out a story, an anecdote, an expres-
sion; further, I never felt quite fair charging you my "doctor" fees
when I felt as though I should be paying you for coming to see me. It is
said that we go into medicine to be healed. Well, with many of my pa-
tients I often came away drained and plucked. Never so with you.
You did make me a little uneasy, as a healer, when you inherited that
bag of paraphernalia from the witch doctor (by way of the sheriff) in
Beaufort. You assured me at the time that the power vested in you was
only for good healing and hasty cure, not for hexes and juju. All of us
had to trust that you would not cast spells.
But I guess you failed. You cast a spell on all of us, and like the
mongoose and the cobra, we were charmed. If I have no other recollec-
tion of you than that slight hesitancy of speech, long preceding any sort
of stroke, I shall hear it as long as I live. With it, I think unintentionally,
you created an expectancy nigh on unbearable, waiting for the rest of
the story. It could have been a stutter, or perhaps a stammer, but I
think not. It simply constituted the Frank I shall remember.
I don't put much stock in heaven, but I think you do; and I suspect
that if there is a heaven, you're there, having a drink, smoking a cigar,
perhaps a pipe, probably rockin', and listening to the really tall tales of
your old friends. I reckon not all of them got there, but any who did
were most assuredly helped along the way by you.o101
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/125/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.