Clinton Sigmon suffered from his war wounds for the rest of his life
After his wartime service, Sigmon's husband suffered from health ailments. Eventually, he died of cancer. Sigmon describes his death and the strength and support she received from other widows.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Nell Putnam Sigmon, December 13, 1979. Interview H-0143. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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What was your husband like?
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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Well, he was a mechanic. He was a genius.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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A genius?
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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Yes: And after he got back from service, he went to work for the State
Highway Department. He was head mechanic. Oh, he was one of the best.
Everybody said he really was a good mechanic. But the poor old thing
come down with… He had some feet problem. His feet were sort
of frozen when he was in the War. Wearing those old boots so long, and
when he'd pull them off, the blood and hide and everything
would come off(). Oh, he had a lot of trouble
with his feet. And the older he got, the worse they'd get. So
they retired him, and then they found out he had cancer. And he was sick
five year. And I waited on that man. After they found out he had cancer,
he was in and out of the Veterans Hospital at Oteen. Well, he was an
outpatient for a long time before they found out he had cancer. And so
he didn't want to stay in the hospital; he wanted to stay
at home. Well, I kept him at home, and I waited on
him. He had two major operations, one on this side and one on that side.
It was in the lymph glands. And he had a tumor under his tongue. They
took that out and the lower jawbone, his teeth. They had to do all that
in order to get to all those glands that that thing travelled in. And I
had to fix his food just like you do a baby's. But I waited
on that man just like if he was a little helpless child. And on Monday,
he and his sister and me… They were awfully good to me,
especially that one; she lost a boy in service. And she was so depressed
and everything. She was so good to my husband, her brother. And she and
me would take him to Oteen when he'd have to go in for a
checkup and everything. And so we had took him up there on Monday, and
they had put him through the lab and everything, and they told him to go
home and take it easy, that they had done all they could do for him.
Well, we knew that he was getting to the last stages, because he had
such a dark color, and he was just weakening away. If he'd
get up, a lot of times he'd fall, lose his balance. So
I'd walk up to him and help him walk. And one time he got
down in the bathroom one night. It was about two o'clock. He
had lost his balance when he started to get up. And so I helped him get
back to bed, because I knew if he lay on the floor it might take him
till Monday(), as weak as he was. But honest to
goodness, that man was as poor as he could be. Right in here, you could
stick your fist in there in those places, and he was a big-boned man. He
was a well-built man. He was tall, and he had the biggest body, and you
could count every bone in his back, all of his ribs. He was just plumb
pitiful. But I sure waited on him. And then on Friday morning, he died.
He said he felt so bad he couldn't sit up, but I guess that
it had just got him. But on Tuesday night after we'd taken
him up to the hospital, I know he had a light heart attack. I had a
couch over there for him to lay on a lot. And he
took a smothering spell during the night. And they had give him some
medicine for his heart, and I didn't know he had heart
trouble. And Susan—my daughter, that's head nurse
at Charlotte—looked at his medicine that they give him, and
she said, "Mother, did you know Daddy had heart
trouble?" And I said, "No, Susan. He didn't
tell me." She said, "Well, he's got heart
trouble, because he's got a prescription here for heart
medicine." And they was giving him the cancer drugs in a
capsule. But he sure did suffer, I'm telling you.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Did he realize that he was about to die?
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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Oh, he had told me that he wasn't going to live long, and on
Friday morning his back hurt him so bad he said, "Every bone in
it feels like it's going to come out."
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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Was he afraid of dying, or was he ready to die …
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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He wished he could die. He wished he could die and get out of the
misery.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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How did you get through all that?
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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I don't know. And my friend had a husband that had a tumor on
his brain. A very fine fellow. And she has three grown boys. And her
husband went to the same hospital my daughter works. In fact, she was
head nurse on the same floor that he was on. And he had a tumor on his
brain, and it was malignant. And she told me one weekend she was home.
She said, "Mother, don't tell nobody, but Aunt
Molly's (she called her "Aunt Molly,"
because we just grew up together and everything) husband has got cancer
of the brain. They operated, but he'll probably lose his
mind." But he was just like my husband; he'd fall.
She had her hands full, too. We're still good friends. We go
places together. I said, "Didn't you feel like
giving up sometimes? Or did you feel like that you might go
first?" She said, "I absolutely
did." I said, "I often made remarks to Susan that if
her Daddy didn't, if something didn't soon
help() here, that I was going to go before
him." My body was in a strain. But I toughed it out. But he
told me a couple weeks before he died that he knew he wasn't
going to live long, and that he wanted me to look after these little
grandsons. Anytime they wanted to come here, for me to go after them,
and to be good to them, because he said, "Nell,
they're small, and they can't help theirself now.
But you'll be rewarded for it." And I did. If they
need any new clothes and I see they need them, I'll go buy
them for them. Now when they get grown and everything, they
won't need my help.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
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He felt like these grandsons would take care of you then, when you were
older.
- NELL PUTNAM SIGMON:
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Yes.