HIRAM BEAM STORY - DAY 2

 Hiram Bean - day 2

I’m just taking the week off from more serious topics and writing some fiction for four days.  

Hiram Bean is a seven-year-old boy in Maquoketa, Iowa.  His dad is one of the two funeral directors in Maquoketa.  His mother died of cancer a few months ago, and that has really affected Hiram. He has become withdrawn and sullen.  His teacher (Jillian Casey) has reached out to Ella Draughton, an 81-year-old lady who lives near the school.  Archie Beam works strange hours for funerals, visitations, and related mortician functions - and has tried to show love for Hiram, but it has been hard on both the Dad (Archie Beam) and the son (Hiram Beam). 

******

After making and enjoying cupcakes, Ella and Hiram sat on her sofa.  Ella had picked three of her Babar books. Hiram had never seen or read the Babar books, and Ella enjoyed introducing the books and the little elephant to Hiram.  She wanted to build rapport with Hiram so she read and pointed out things in the book.  Hiram had been shy and still withdrawn and Ella was trying to coax him into a relationship.  

But, Babar stores seem to be a good opening.  Ella read the first one and asked Hiram if he knew particular words.  He knew all the words.  After finishing “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant”, he wanted to read more.  Fortunately, Ella Draughton had most of the Babar books and they read “Babar the King”.  But for this second book, Ella let Hiram read and she helped him with difficult words. 

But, when they finished “Babar the King”, Ella thought Hiram was almost asleep, so she started to read “Babar’s Travels” and by the fifth page, Hiram was sound asleep laying across Ella’s lap.  Ella had the remote control for her television next to her and turned the TV on and watched Jeopardy with the sound off.  And, she closed her eyes just before Double Jeopardy started, and the two napped together.  

*****

Ella woke up as the evening news came on, and gently slid Hiram off her lap and onto the sofa.  And, if by magic, when she got free from Hiram sleeping on her lap, she got a phone call from Archie Beam asking how Hiram was doing, and that he would be coming soon.

*********

Ella’s goal was to give Hiram success, encouraging him to speak and be relaxed, and letting him have a mother figure in his life.

*****

Ella also thought that it would be important to see him most every day.  She wasn’t accepting money for this “job” (it wasn’t really a job to her).  Her grandchildren were older, her children were scattered, and having Hiram in her house brighten her day.  She tried to make this clear to Archie Beam, who felt like he was imposing on the older lady.  She firmly said (and meant) it that this was an act of love on her part.  She went to the library and asked Ethelle Caso for help in picking out books for a seven-year-old boy to read. She checked in with Jillian Casey, Hiram’s second-grade teacher in terms of how Ella could support what Jillian was doing in the classroom.  

Jillian told Ella that Hiram seemed to be coming around, and actually smiling and laughing.  

*****

So the “after-school program” at Ella Draughton’s home was working out well.

The school didn’t have an official Halloween program, but the PTA did a “trunk and treat” event where parents, teachers, and staff gave out candy from the trunks of their cars on the Saturday before Halloween.  Ella helped Hiram get dressed as Spiderman and then walked with him through the parking lot at Briggs Elementary School.  Ella hadn’t guessed there would be ten Spiderman costumes at Briggs Elementary School.  It hadn’t bothered Hiram any but Ella decided if she was still helping Hiram next year, he'd have something more unique.  Ella was even sitting with Archie and Hiram at church.  

*****

But, then came the accident.  The frame that supported a heavy casket collapsed and slid into Archie Beam’s leg and foot.  Archie somehow extracted his foot and called 911.  An X-ray showed that his leg had a compound fracture and he would be in a cast for two months.  The Jackson County Hospital in Maquoketa didn’t have all the tools to set the leg and put Archie in a cast, and sent him by ambulance to Dubuque to Sacred Heart Hospital.  Archie was laid up for three days in the hospital, and Ella had Hiram stay at her house.  

Robert Sims stepped in to help Archie with some of the heavy work of the mortician trade, and Archie hobbled around on crutches when doing a visitation or service.  Unfortunately, it was the right leg and right foot, so Archie couldn’t drive for the first four weeks.  Ella drove Archie to-and-from the Peterson-Beam funeral home.  Archie got pretty good with crutches.  Ella’s house had two bedrooms on the first floor, and Archie stayed with her.  Hiram’s sister, Lizzie stayed with the Lupkin family.  It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it worked.  Ella and Hiram worked with Lizzy and the Lupkin family to host a Thanksgiving dinner.  

Ella herself was going to Sabula, Iowa for Thanksgiving dinner.  Most of the rest of her family was coming there.

*****

Time and interactions went on.  We talk about blended families - but that generally is when one adult comes with some children and the other adult comes with children and the new family is a combination of two families.  

In this situation, shortly after the New Year, Archie, Ella, and Hiram were a non-traditional family.  Lizzie had blended in with the Lupkin family. Archie and Ella didn’t marry, but Ella became a surrogate grandmother for Hiram and a surrogate mother for Archie.  

Jillian Casey watched as Hiram came back from the depression of losing his mother to gaining a local “almost” grandmother.  

*****

Epilogue

Hiram went on to be an honor student, and even though his father pushed him to be a mortician, he chose nuclear medicine and became a microbiologist of fame.  Archie recovered and eventually merged with Robert Sims to have one funeral business in Maquoketa..

And, while she wasn’t expecting it, Jillian Casey was the Iowa Teacher of the year for her love and work with all children - the high achieving and the low achieving.  She would tell you that “Love is Love” and that “Love Wins”.