Also,
the Lullaby song is to the tune of Edelweis from the "Sound of
Music". I don't know the other tunes that you didn't know
also. My kids really enjoyed this tape as they were growing up
and I to this day have to sing the books of the Bible.
I worked with a sister in
field service today that have met the parents of Katie. They
lived in Riudoso, New Mexico. Katie would be in early 20s.
Their story is in the January 22, 1988 issue of the Awake. The
article is SIDS A Parent's Daily Fear.
She died on Dec. 22, 1984. Ken and Tottie Eberline are the
parent's names.
Agape,
Janine
And
then a short while later, I received this further update from
another couple from Washington State:
My wife, Elva, and I moved to serve
in the little town of Rifle, Colorado in 1972, as it was one on the
society's list of needing more brothers. Several others moved
there in the ensuing years including a fine regular pioneer couple, Ken
and Tottie Eberline. Tottie was exceptionally good at encouraging
young ones in the service, regularly picking them up from school and
taking them out from house to house. During that time Tottie
helped many of them learn the Bible books, names of the apostles, etc.
through the use of the songs she wrote now known as Katie's
Songs. Ken and Tottie were then called for circuit work and a few
years later Elva and I had to move to California for work due to an
economic "bust" in Rifle. We strived to encourage [the
children there] as best we could which many parents appreciated.
In the meantime Ken and Tottie were blessed by a little "circuit
breaker" whom they named Katie. Then we heard through friends
that little Katie had died from "SIDS", or Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome. Elva sent a letter expressing our condolences and
mentioned how much we appreciated Totties interest in helping the young
ones in our previous congregation, especially the unique teaching by
her songs. Elva added that some day, when Tottie was able to, we
would love to have the words to some of them to encourage the children
where we now were. Within just days, we received a cassett tape
of all of Katies Songs, sung in that lovely, plaintive voice of
Tottie's, acappella. We shared copies of that tape with many,
many appreciative parents who evidently also made copies for others as
we have run across it in congregations in many states. We still
have the original sent to us by Tottie and have just promised to make
copies for several parents in our current congregation. An
article on SIDS covering the experience of Ken and Tottie with Katie
can be found in the January 22, 1988 Awake!
Below are a couple of excerpts from the Awake article
mentioned in both accounts above. Read the entire series in the
January 22, 1988 Awake!,
pages 3-12.
- *** g88 1/22 p. 3 SIDS—A
Parent’s Daily Fear ***
- IT WAS 4:00 a.m. of
December 22, 1984. Ken Eberline poked his head into the bedroom to
see how seven-month-old Katie was doing. Little Katie was the firstborn
pride and joy of Ken and Tottie, who were in their early 30’s. The baby
was sleeping peacefully. Ken left the house. He had a long drive to Las
Cruces, New Mexico, to teach a seminar.
- Tottie got up at 7:30 a.m.
and went to see how Katie was. Katie was strangely silent. Tottie
looked again, touched her, and immediately knew the worst. Katie was
dead. She had died of crib death, or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome). This sudden, silent death creeps up on thousands of families
every year.
- A Compassionate Medical Examiner
- How did Tottie and Ken react to
their loss? Tottie told Awake!: “As soon as I realized what had
happened, I called 911, the emergency services. The paramedics and the
police arrived in haste along with a medical examiner. They were all so
kind and compassionate. Of course, doubts rushed to my mind—what had I
done or failed to do that could have caused this?
- “The medical examiner calmed my
fears. He explained that he had lost a child in the same circumstances
nine years earlier. ‘There was nothing you could have done to prevent
it,’ he assured me. ‘Even if you had been standing by the crib with a
monitor, you could not have saved her.’ He added: ‘You cannot
anticipate it and you cannot prevent it. In certain cases, everything
just shuts down at once, and at present there is no way of knowing the
cause.’ I am sure that his remarks saved me from a lot of guilt and
self-incrimination.”
- How did Ken and Tottie cope with
their loss? A later article will answer that.
- *** g88 1/22 p. 10 SIDS—Facing
the Grief ***
- SIDS—Facing the Grief
- SUDDEN infant death is a
devastating tragedy. An apparently normal, healthy baby fails to wake
up. It is totally unexpected, for who imagines that an infant will die
before its parents? A baby that has become the center of a mother’s
endless love is suddenly the reason for a mother’s endless grief.
- Guilt feelings begin to flood
in. The parents feel responsible for the death, as if it were due to
some neglect. They ask themselves, ‘What could we have done to prevent
it?’ In some cases the husband, without foundation, might even
unconsciously blame his wife. When he went to work, the baby was alive
and healthy. When he got home, it had died in its crib! Then what was
his wife doing? Where was she at the time? These irrational doubts have
to be cleared up so as not to put a strain on the marriage.
- Tottie, mentioned in our opening
article, went through a difficult phase. She says: “If I am not
careful, I still have bouts of guilt and depression. Mentally, I have
to shift gears quickly and get out of that nonproductive thinking.
Prayer has been a great help to me, as I have asked for help to
recognize my own thought processes and to help me think more
positively.”
- How can other people help them
in their grief? Tottie shot out the answer: “Some people act as if
Katie never existed. If only they would realize that in fact you do
want to talk about your loved one! It is therapeutic to talk. Katie
will always be a lovely little child to us, and we want to remember
her, not forget her. So why be afraid to talk about her?”