and does spend a great deal of their time thank- 
ing God for this, and we know better now how to 
sympathize with those less fortunate. 
Then as if this wasn’t enough, within thirty 
days after Monte’s accident, I became ill. I woke 
up one morning after over fifty years of perfect 
health, with what seemed like fifty billion tiny 
pin-points, blood-red, over my chest, the sides of 
my face and my arms. Now this was the begin- 
ning of my real trouble. I paid no attention to 
this at first; it would seem to leave in a day or 
two and then come back until finally it came and 
stayed, and these points gradually ran together 
and became one solid mass, blood-red over this 
entire area. Naturally, I thought it was skin 
trouble and I went to what I believe is the finest 
dermatologist in Houston and this was diagnosed 
as ‘“‘Lupus Erethematosus.”” The  Reader’s 
Digest, November, 1951, page 41, has an article 
concerning this “‘fatal’’ malady. The article 
states that until the entrance into the medical 
profession of ACTH, little help had been given 
people with this trouble, believed by many to 
have been caused by nervousness and overwork. 
This article is really worth reading. Look up an 
old copy. 
This trouble didn’t seem to bother me at all 
physically. I was never uncomfortable but grad- 
ually kept getting weaker and weaker and actually 
got to where I couldn’t even walk, and [ was put 
in a hospital in Houston where I stayed for thirty 
days. Many kinds of “‘wonder drugs’ were 
given me; I seemed to respond to nothing, only 
got more nervous. Then I was released from the 
hospital and went home and stayed in bed many 
months, directing my business from my bedside. 
But all during this time, my office and field 
force, several who had been with me over fifteen 
years, were more determined than ever that the 
plants I had spent a lifetime cross-breeding and 
the more than two thousand selections of new 
hybrids that I had made from over a million 
crosses were propagated and the work carried on 
more diligently than ever. It seemed like while 
I was gone they wanted to kill themselves at 
work. Mrs. Russell surprised everybody by 
showing an interest that was never necessary for 
her to show before. Instead of the business 
going down, our business has grown even larger, 
and all these fine Daylilies have been increased 
in stock in such a way that we believe we have 
got the finest plants in the Hemerocallis world 
of anyone in our time, at least the voting mem- 
bers of the Hemerocallis world say we do, and 
our travels over most of America visiting other 
growers’ gardens further convince us that we do. 
I gradually got better and got where I could 
RUSSELL GARDENS, SPRING, TEXAS 
work two or three hours a day. Then all of a 
sudden I became worse and was advised to go 
at once to one of the largest clinics in America, 
and I was gone over by at least one hundred 
doctors. [ was puzzled and so were they, so I 
came home again and went to bed and stayed 
another two or three months, got a little better, 
got up again, and got worse than ever and was 
advised then to go to another of America’s larger 
clinics. They were puzzled, admitted so, and 
could do me no more good other than to inform 
me after eight days of continuous study by 
dozens more doctors, that there were many types 
of this particular ailment, none contagious, and 
while there was relief for many of them, mine 
was absolutely hopeless with what they bad 
now, and that [ should go home and go to bed, 
stay three months and come back up there, with 
a look as if to say, “‘ Hf you’re still here at the end 
of that three months” and they would like to 
look me over again. 
Somehow I was never afraid. I was given ab- 
solutely no treatment at this time, no medicine 
to take in any form other than an extremely 
high-powered vitamin to take daily. Every 
doctor I saw almost beat his brains out trying to 
help me—and to all the medical profession [ll 
forever be grateful. Well, I did go home and I 
did not go to bed. This was about ten months 
ago. | took the pills all right, but when they 
gave me these instructions it was at the time of 
the year when I had over two and one-half 
million Daylilies in bloom and many new hybrids 
in bloom for their first time that had to be checked 
and evaluated, plants that I had spent the best 
part of my life breeding, and [ made up my mind 
that I was going to do it or drop dead out in the 
field trying. 
All this I accomplished, and suddenly one day 
I got to thinking all by myself what a fool I'd 
been and still was to worry or even think so much 
about myself when I knew there were so many 
people far worse off than I was. Then is when I 
really made up my mind—not like the little 
“boy who, when he gets into trouble, hollers 
Mama’’—but I went way out in the middle of 
my field as ’'d done many times before all alone 
in the darkest part of the night when I wanted 
to try and figure out a problem. Only this time 
I did the thing that’s been done thousands of 
times by thousands of people before my time who 
I’m sure were more worthy than myself, and got 
down on my knees. I asked “why.” That’s when 
I learned my greatest lesson in humility, and ’'m 
not ashamed. | got my answer. I learned that 
the greatest ‘‘wonder drug’ ever found is free, 
and I’m proud to know that most of those learned 
men who make up our medical profession say 
5 
