Henry Hansen Story
That last year of his life was one of preparation (for me) and I didn't realize it until later on. He knew what was happening to his body. Clearly he was working hard--all that wood splitting, chopping to get his strength back and yet he was losing it steadily. He began to lose weight and rapidly. But what he accomplished! He said "you are going to have trouble with the environmentalists over that gas tank" and so he dug it out and got rid of it. If you haven't seen that done you wouldn't believe what a big job it was. That tank was large and heavy. It was like moving the dirt from a space the size of a bedroom. He had the help of Bob Gillmor and John Thomas in covering up the hole. I think I have not mentioned John who was and is a brother to both Hank and I. His dairy ran for years with the help of Hank who was always available to fix any problem. And when we needed him he was here-and still is. (Note: John's tragic death on Thanksgiving Day, 1998, took him from us, but surely reunited these two old friends.)
He also felt that the old abandoned well had not been properly put down so he uncovered that also and what a job that was. He had dumped many loads of concrete slabs on top. They came off and out and he filled that well with sand. When it was well plugged all the concrete went back on-his tractor with Bob helping again. He began to work on the house. Dean had been here with us for 3 years with his 'Judge' and when he built his cute 'A' frame and moved out, we painted and carpeted that room. He put a new garage door in the basement, which once again meant overhead work and was very difficult. We had the living room painted including the white fireplace which I wanted badly. We arranged to have the entertainment center built and installed and the family room painted. I wanted to completely renew the utility room in the basement and he said if I could do the painting he could lay the floor tile. He knew he could work on his knees but that he could no longer work overhead. We never got around to it.
It was harder and harder to keep up with our young friends in those years. We had always enjoyed our youthful companions and had many great experiences and now we tried whitewater rafting. The camping was great and it was fun, but Hank found out the first day of the first trip that he could not do that. He was in a canoe or raft that tipped over and the cold shock of the Deschutes River nearly stopped his breathing. It frightened him and after that he became the pick-up person while the rest of us ran up and down the river. He had always enjoyed water skiing and had a boat and lots of water toys. He could step off the bank on one ski, with his hat on, ski all over the lake, figure 8's at top speed and then step off at the end of the ride back on the beach.
One of my favorite water skiing stories was (when younger) Hank was doing his figure 8's and fell off, head first, and then didn't come back up for many minutes, scaring all of us on the bank watching. When he finally popped up and came back to shore we asked what "happened?" and he said "I lost my swimming suit (force of the water stripped it right off) and wasn't coming back up without it!" Everybody had a story about his boating. He was pulling me around the lake one day when he realized that his dog was in the lake trying to reach us. I think it must have been Toast, a Labrador Retriever. Anyway he just threw my tow rope in and went off to rescue his dog. John was in the boat and gave him a bad time (what about Maxine, etc?). Hank's answer..."You can always find a wife but a good dog is hard to come by." He knew I "floated' well and had no fear of the water. One day I was on a ski in the middle of the lake and he heard a sound he didn't like in his motor so he cut it off and there I was, down, tired leg and no safety belt, forgot to wear it. So I called out "Hank, I have no belt on." He was deep into his motor problems so all I could hear was "well float!" So I did until he was satisfied his motor was OK. Well I refused to be insulted--it was typical HOH and it made for great story telling later on.
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On one camp out with all our young people, he and I were to get there first-it was Billy Chinook (lake) and we were looking for the forest camp. We found what we thought was right--only one place available so Wolf and I had to get out and save the spot. All afternoon went by and all evening. Fortunately he had unloaded a bag of groceries. So finally I found a matchbook in my purse and built a fire, roasted hot dogs for Woofie and me and in the middle of the night Bill Hall drove in looking for us! Hank had spent the day getting everybody else into the right campground.
He saved a young boy's life on one of these trips. It was one of Doreen Nelson's brothers. He jumped off the boat and went straight down and didn't come back up. Hank just asked Bob Gillmor to watch after his boat (Bob was in his own boat) and over he went, found the boy, brought him up and drained the water out of him. He saved a boy at the beach also (can't remember if I included that story so far). He was there with friends and saw boys on a small air mattress going out to sea-strong outgoing tide-and they knew they were in trouble but couldn't help themselves. Hank ran to the pick-up and found a long rope (he usually had whatever anyone needed) and had his friends on one end, tied himself to the other and went in. He was no swimmer but he reached those boys and brought them in. He saved Betty and Walt's daughter from being killed in a fall off a mountain trail one time. I wasn't there but apparently she fell and his reaction was so quick he snagged onto some part of her as she went down. I heard this from her grateful and frightened parents. Hank didn't have much to say about those incidents. He'd rather tell the funny ones! He didn't tell the one involving the boy scouts either.
He was on a camp out with the boys at the beach and in the quiet of the day he was showing them match tricks. He could light a match, put it on his tongue and turn it over and close his mouth--opening it again to a still burning match. The boys loved it. Later, while away from the tent, they noticed some excitement and discovered it was a fire--and guess where. Yes, it was their tent--burned right down with everything in it. It was all very embarrassing and no one ever knew what actually happened but everybody knew who had been doing match tricks! He had borrowed a cooler from someone and gave them ours as soon as he got home. That story gets told every year at scout camp and it was 'finally' funny when his grandsons (Dan and/or Jeff) went to camp, heard the story, and then learned who was responsible! Grandpa!
March 1997
I keep putting this away and dreading the remembrances of those last months--keep wanting to go back to happier years and all the 'untold' stories and there are many. It was so painful for me and for our family and friends, too. Paul Roberts had told the Priesthood in our Ward to get ready to help because I was going to need it--hope I haven't mentioned that too many times! (I didn't know it at the time) but we all expected him to become helpless and need nursing care. He was failing so fast and so visibly.
The roof wasn't very good and he wanted to put a new one on himself--was quite irritated when I insisted he have someone else do it which he did but believe me when I tell you that young roofer was well supervised. He also had the shop roofed, pointing out that he was saving me problems later on.
Hank had never been in a hospital as a patient, but was talked into the research program at OHS early in the process of medication for Parkinson's. This man who had never (almost never) taken an aspirin now needed medicine--Sinemet and a couple of other drugs that were helpful for awhile. But they really wanted and needed him in their research work as a guinea pig. In 1993, January or February, they convinced him to come in again. This meant a 3 or 4 day stay at the hospital research wing where they tried variations of his drugs along with the various tests. It was a bad experience and he swore never again, though all I could figure out from his telling of it was that he had missed a nights sleep. He had paced the hall, unable to sleep, but the nurses found him, asleep on the floor! In the hall!
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