Family Stories
The Boy with the Blue Eyes
I would often sit with Grandma Bohnert (Sarah Helen Bohnert), either in her home on Edgemont Boulevard or later in her room at the nursing home, and she would tell me stories of her life. At the nursing home, she would sit in her rocking chair and I would sit on the bed or a nearby chair and she would take my hand in hers as the chair glided back and forth. I distinctly remember the feeling of her fingers in my hands as I would absently stroke the smooth, paper-thin skin of her fingers or thumb as she reminisced.
It often seemed as if she had specific stories that she would tell to different people. In speaking with my sisters, I was sometimes surprised that they hadn't heard a certain story that I had heard numerous times before, and they had stories as well that I had never heard before, even though she and I often spoke for hours.
One of the stories that she shared with me was that of her son, Harry Anton Bohnert...the little boy with the blue eyes.
Harry Anton Bohnert
May 24, 1933 - January 13, 1938
Harry was born on May 24, 1933 and was named after his grandfather (Grandma's father), Anton Bohnert. He had blond hair and blue eyes and, judging from the picture above, he was certainly doted on by this three older brothers, Melbourne, Robert and James, and three older sisters, Trula, Sis and Dot.
On January 9, 1938, when Harry was 4 years and 7 months old, he contracted Diptheria. By the next day, when it was apparent that the disease had become serious, the doctor performed a tracheotomy that, tragically, was unsuccessful (see the transcript of the newspaper announcement below). Both Grandma and my father recounted how they were unable to have a proper memorial and funeral because of the contagiousness of the disease. That none of the other young children contracted Diptheria as well was surprising and fortunate.
At the time of Harry's death, Grandma was 5 months pregnant. She told me that, after Harry's death, she prayed to God that the child she carried would be a little boy with blue eyes. All of the other children in the family had brown eyes. Only she and Harry shared blue eyes.
When the baby was born on May 22, 1938, it was - indeed - a little boy with blue eyes. They named him Linus Paul Bohnert.
He was the answer to her prayers.