I Got the Medical Records

They came this past Friday and I'm still taking it all in. A few things of note:

Lola had her first "attack" in January of 1930 and it was diagnosed as symptomatic depression. She was admitted to a facility that I still cannot find and then paroled to another mysterious facility and released.

Lola was admitted in 1936 (the second time) as Marie. According to records I have, she stated her name was Madeline and not Marie, yet the previous records indicated she was admitted as Lola L. Robinson.

The doctor that wrote the initial admittance certificate (or whatever it was truly called) in 1936, was the same doctor that delivered me 24 years later in the same city! How weird is that?

Lola died eight days before I was born and died at DeWitt State Hospital.

DeWitt attempted to contact family for permission to do an autopsy. They contacted "her mother". It wasn't really her mother, but her father's second wife and widow (George Cloos died in 1947). Grace, George's widow, didn't feel she had the authority to grant that and suggested DeWitt contact Lola's husband or son. This was the first I'd ever seen that anyone in the family knew of my dad. The hospital couldn't find either and went back to Grace for help. She suggested then that they contact Lola's brother and gave them contact information. He also suggested they contact Lola's husband or son (apparently no longer in touch and unaware of the fact that Red was dead and my dad nowhere to be found). When DeWitt responded that they couldn't find anyone to grant permission for an autopsy, Bill granted it.

Lola had one child deceased (Raymond), one child living (Robert) and one miscarriage.

After Lola's first "attack" in 1930, she was never the same (according to Red) and their marriage deteriorated and he left her in 1934.

Lola's religion was listed as Jewish and the records indicate that her mother was. My oh so scandalous great grandmother, Effie Beck, was apparently Jewish, according to these records (and is certainly deserving of a book about her life). I am completely fascinated by her.

This is but a small portion as there is much to digest and I haven't quite digested it all.