When Henry and Juliette had been dating for a year, Henry
proposed. Juliette did not hesitate to accept, and they planned an
August wedding. Juliette asked her best friend, Sarah Jennings, to
be her maid of honor. Henry asked his brother Ed to be his best
man.
Juliette was well liked in the community, and several of her
friends asked if they could be one of her bridesmaids. Before long,
her bridesmaid list was almost as long as the guest list for the
wedding itself. Not wanting to offend anyone, she agreed that all
of them could be her bridesmaids, but rather than stand at the
altar with her, they would occupy the first few pews of the church
where the wedding would take place. The local paper saw the novelty
of the situation, and did a short feature on the day of the
wedding.
August 12 arrived quicker than anyone could have expected, and they
were soon a married couple. They honeymooned at Lake Tahoe,
spending a total of three days in the splendor of the mountains.
When they returned, they moved into Henry's small home and soon
Juliette brought her feminine sensibility to make a real home.
Juliette made sure that Henry had clean clothes to wear and Henry
made sure they had plenty of fresh eggs. Juliette kept her job at
the grocery store. Henry built a workshop where he could spend time
on “his projects.”
When the couple had time to spare, they spent their evenings
enjoying radio programs like The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of
Superman and occasionally going out to the movies.
Now that most of Henry’s family was in town, he was upbeat and
largely happy. He enjoyed reading letters from his brother Ed, now
back on the family farm, and getting updates on his nephew and
niece. Juliette’s brother was now in High School and playing on the
freshman football team, the “Tigers.” As a couple, they were like a
literal picture of Americana, straight out of Norman Rockwell
painting.
But all that changed when Henry had the accident that could have
taken his life.
As Henry clocked in on that fateful Thursday, he went about his
work as if it was any other day. Inspection was going fine until
the conveyor belt seized up and production came to a halt. Henry
went into the motor room and saw that a rat had gotten wedged into
one of the gears. Blood and fur were everywhere, and the only way
to get it going again, was by sheer muscle. He grabbed an iron bar,
and attempted to lever the mechanism backward, so that he could
clear the obstruction.
The bar slipped, and Henry stumbled, falling into the machinery.
With his hand crushed into the gears, he screamed out for help.
Although his co-workers arrived quickly, it was too late for Henry,
and three of his fingers had been severed.
Henry was rushed to Dr. David Orson, the family physician, for
treatment. Although he was able to stitch up the wounds, there was
no possibility of saving Henry’s fingers. He would never play
guitar again.