Bryan the Lion

Story to follow at a later date. Bryan The Lion's early will follow at a later date.

Marilyn had this baby that two doctors said she would never have because of the badly broken pelvis as a teenager in a ski accident. We were going to adopt but it happened. I was a senior at University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I was bound and determined to graduate as a teacher so I could be around children. Funny things happened while living in the continental apartment house just off campus with my parents, and Jerry was graduating too. I was grounded from using stairs and the diabetes was high and I needed a lot of sleep, but was doing well in my classes and graduated that year with honors. One day, I got on the elevator, went to the basement, and washed the clothes, folded them, and put them back in the elevator. As I reached the twelfth floor, the power went out, and it was getting very hot. I prayed again, and investigated the buttons with no luck. But I decided to open the doors and I could see I was between floors, put the basket in the door, pulled the floor down so I could crawl out. I went into labor the next day, and Bryan was born after a difficult 36 hour labor during a rainstorm, and the lights went out in the hospital except in the delivery room. I slept for two days, and the nurses had fun feeding this hungry baby. He weighed abut 9 1/2 pounds. I had gained twenty pounds but lost thirty pounds in labor. Bryan was born with bright red hair and no eye-lashes and a nervous chin, because he was born two or three weeks early.

Bryan Charles Jackson was my first son born August 5, 1955.

This is Lewalla Jackson and Bryan is the first grandbaby on the Jackson side of the family.

Clarence Jackson was a proud grandfather. Baby Bryan was named after the two grandfathers, Bryan Charles Jackson.

Jerry went away to Boston to dental school. The doctors would not release me without a nurse's care. Three more weeks of nurses care and they gave me permission to go to Phoenix and be under my parents' care. My mother hired a black nurse to care for Bryan. I gained my strength and the blood pressure was normal by Thanksgiving. Bryan and I flew to Boston and a happy reunion.

My mother and father took me to the airport and cried as I left. They loved that little boy too.

Jerry the proud father checking Bryan's first tooth.

Bryan loved to dress up and go to church. Money was tight, mom bought material by the pound left over from the factories, because Boston was the clothing capital of the US. I loved to sew for my children.