"My mother and father had 13 children - nine girls (including me) and four boys. Two of my brothers and father have passed away.

Our large family was manageable until my father became ill. When we lived in Minot 55 years ago, my father worked at a flour mill. While working there, he contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized for about two years, "somewhere up north" is all I was told. This left my mother to take care of 13 children with little or no income. I know it must have been extremely hard for her, even though my grandmother came to live with us for a while to help her out.

Still, other than noticing that we didn't always have a lot of clothes and the extras, I felt at the time that we made out fine."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Time deepens bonds, friendships between sisters (The Grand Forks Herald 2/18)

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