Somehow Dave had picked up some kind of blood infection and he was kept in the hospital after Margeet came home. About a week later, our doctor told us he should be taken to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh where he could get specialized treatment. It was the first time we got to hold him.!
He was there almost two weeks before we were able to bring him home. I can remember the night he finally was home, almost a month after his birth, that I had to dash down to a drugstore in Charleroi to get some baby formula before the drug store closed. Dave picked up quite quickly and soon was a pretty husky-looking boy. He was bald-headed because they had shaved his head to give him blood transfusions.
At this time, the Allenport job was finished and I had been transferred to a project at the U.S. Steel Corporation’s Vandergrift plant where again I was the project and field engineer. This was about a 60 mile trip from our home in Charleroi, and the project lasted almost three years.
On March 16, 1954, Dave caused a lot of excitement in our marriage by deciding to be born about 6 weeks before the expected time. Since he wasn’t expected so soon, I really hadn’t checked on the best route to the Charleroi Hospital. The hospital could be seen from the main highway, but in the middle of the night, with Marguerite wondering if we would make it on time, I drove up a road which seemed to lead directly to the hospital. It led to a dead-end and it was panicsville for a few minutes while I backtracked and went around the block to get there.
Margeet’s parents had returned to the States from Iran for a three-month leave, and came to visit us for a few days at Charleroi during the summer when Dave was a few months old. It was a very nice visit, and the first time they had seen us since before we were married. While in Iran, they had opportunities to travel to different parts of country, and they had many pictures to show us, and Mr. Keller had many stories to tell.