Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-08-22
By KATHLEEN NORRIS

~ fully that he has no trou-
L \ bles that a whole lot of
money wouldn't cure. Most of
us are in that position, or think
we are. If we subtracted from
the dreadful sum total of mar
ital failures the element of
money, we should remove their
most common cause.
The extravagant wife and the
penurious husband. Or the spend
thrift man and the anxious, thrifty
wife. The poker debts. The things
the little woman is buying on the
installment plan. The discouraged
angry talks about accommodating bills
and inevitable expenses. To say
nothing of the marriages that are
contracted simply because there is
money on one side or the other.
A woman named Frances Grant
writes me from Rochester, and pre-
sents new angle on the money
problem. Like all human tangles,
it has aspects that no novelist could
imagine. Frances is 80, her hus-
band, Ward, a few years older; they
have three teen-age girls.
Ward has always been manager
of his mothers business ever since
first knew him." writes Frances.
1T isn't very large business, but
1t brings us in a good income now,
and if Ward inherited it he could
consider himself a well-to-do man.
His mother draws what she wants
from it, always in the neighborhood
of three or four hundred month,
which some day should mean a very
handsome addition to our resources.
Ward and his mother always have
been affectionate and close, and the
girls and I make a good deal of
Grandma. We have always lived
together in the old Grant home.
Hendy Takes Over.
About two years ago Grandma
Grant had slight stroke, and she
has rarely left her room since, ex-
cept perhaps for an occasional drive
and once or twice for very special
occasions, weddings or reunions of
old, old friends. We have one faith
full old servant in the kitchen, but
she could not give Grandma the
care she had to have, nor was all
that the girls and I could do enough,
so we engaged practical nurse, a
plain woman about 40, who has now
been with us more than a year. At
first Grandma didn't like Hendy at
all, nor did any of us, but she is eff
ficiency itself, and we very swiftly
felt that having her in the house
was great help.
After a while Grandma grew
more and more to like, and finally
to adore Hendy. 1t has reached the
point now when even Ward dare not
go into his mothers room without
her consent. She continues agree
able and helpful enough when she
comes downstairs, but for the most
part the two women live in their
own rooms. Hendy has set up a
little kitchen there, and often ap-
pears only long enough to secure
provisions from the kitchen.
"Grandma quotes Hendy, looks at
her lovingly, laughs at her jokes,
tells us how wonderful she is. A
few days ago she told Ward that she
wanted all the details of the family
business explained to Hendy. and
Hendy went over to the plant and
inspected everything, and Ward
says asked thousand questions.
She asked him what his salary is,
and nodded her head, he said, and
said That's enough
THAT afternoon Grandma
changed her will and left everything
she possessed, silver, books, house,
business, to Mrs. Henderson. Hendy
herself just said to Ward amused
ly, oh, let her have her whims,'
but the family lawyer was simply
outraged by what went on, we know