Girl Suffers Tuberculosis; Dark Clouds, Rays of Hope

Minnesota, 1929

DARK CLOUDS CAN'T SHUT OUT RAYS OF HOPE

Elna Anderson, Local Albert Lea Girl, Suffering From Tuberculosis in Minneapolis General Hospital.

Many of Albert Lea know Miss Elna Anderson formerly of this city, but now confined at the General hospital in Minneapolis suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs.

Miss Anderson spent a year in Glen Lake sanatorium. When discharged she returned to Albert Lea, but in her ambition to make her own way in the world, she over taxed her physical self and the disease returned. On her way back to Glen Lake she became so weak that she got no farther than Minneapolis. She hopes in the near future to be able to get back to the sanatorium.

Those of us who are well and comfortable, but are always grumbling over our lot, should feel mighty cheap when learning of the hard lot this girl has had to endure all through her life — and with very little of an encouraging nature to look forward to.

Miss Anderson has never had much to make her happy. Broken in health and without financial means she has kept a stiff upper lip — always smiling away her tears — catching sight of the smallest ray of sunshine that happens to fall her way. Right now she is very sick, weak and thin — but in spite of all this, she hasn't given up hopes. In a letter this week to a girl friend in Albert Lea she says: "I could write a book on some of the sad things I have seen here. Some day I will tell you all about them."

The following little poem composed by Miss Anderson was enclosed in the letter:

SPRINGTIME

When fierce winds blow
—and way up high
The gray clouds float
Across the sky.

When flowers bloom,
—and birdies sing,
We're happy, cause
It's truly spring.

In Winter time,
When cold winds blow,
The streets are filled
With ice and snow.

We long for sunshine
—and the rain.
We long to wander,
down the lanes.

The winds, the rain,
—and flowers say:
"It won't be long,
Spring's on the way."

—The Evening Tribune, Albert Lea, MN, March 25, 1929, page 5.