December, 1976

It was Thanksgiving Day of 1976. Grandpa and Grandma Stob came to Hamilton to have dinner at Uncle Dick and Aunt Nancy Stob’s house, with our family, dad and mother and Amy and me, Elizabeth VanDyk. I hadn’t been feeling well since the day before, having up-chucked my dinner during the night, so I really didn’t feel like eating a big turkey dinner, but of course since I was only 4 yrs. old, I went along. Grandma had stayed home from church with Amy and me in the morning, but the other people went to church to hear my daddy preach.
    I thought I felt a little better by afternoon, so we all went to Uncle Dick’s house, which was about a block from our house. I tried to eat a little of the dinner, but still didn’t feel well so I went to lie on the sofa with Aunt Nancy’s afghan over me, and tried to go to sleep.
    But Sam, Aunt Nancy’s cat had plans of his own. He jumped up on the broad arm of the sofa near my head, and lay down pretending to go to sleep. Every time he saw my eyes close he would softly brush his tail across my face, and I would reach up to catch it. But I never could catch it because he would quickly twitch it out of my reach. We all thought that it was accidental, but every time that my eyes closed, he would brush my face with his tail to wake me up again. This went on for a while, and everyone was laughing so much, and Sam seemed to enjoy it too.
    He tired of it eventually and jumped to the floor, and walked proudly to the kitchen, as if to say "Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I think Elizabeth will be feeling better soon". Isn’t Sam a smart cat? I think he is, because I did begin to feel better after that.

A true story told to Hilda Stob by Elizabeth VanDyk December, 1976.