As a child, Dr. Harold Shryock called his parents, Alfred and Stella, “Mamma” and “Papa.” In 1916, Mamma detected a slight increase in her son's temperature. To be cautious she began keeping a detailed record of Harold’s body temperature and noticed that increases occurred in the afternoons and evenings. She had him evaluated by several CME physicians, one of whom thought he detected a heart murmur. Although his father, Alfred Shryock, MD, himself didn’t hear it, Harold was confined to bed for three months. He was told to lie still and not even to raise his head. But when nobody was watching, the seventh grader raised his head ¾ just to see if he would die.
Later, another physician, Newton Evans, evaluated Harold and concluded that he did not have a heart problem after all. The boy found himself on a strict diet and exercise program similar to those being prescribed for patients with systemic tuberculosis. Although after being bedridden for three months, this new regiment of eating lots of good food and gradually increasing his physical endurance contributed to his recovery. He enjoyed riding his bicycle to and from school, which helped him regain his strength.
Harold began attending a new, ten-grade church school, and entered the eighth grade at age 13. The school was in a one-story building, located on the west side of Pepper Drive—later called Anderson Street—north of the San Timoteo Creek, about a block from today’s Redlands Boulevard. Even though he was a newcomer, Harold’s schoolmates readily accepted him, and some became long-time personal friends.
The young man headed home as soon as classes ended and spent the rest of his afternoons doing homework or practicing on the piano or cello. This, of course, reduced his contact with the school’s organized recreational activities.
As a teenager, Harold landed a few part-time jobs, becoming caretaker of the institution’s laboratory animals, which included rabbits, guinea pigs, and a goat. He faithfully fed and watered them before and after school each day, and cleaned their cages on Sundays.
Later he labored part time in the maintenance department where he developed a great respect for the loyalty and sincerity of CME’s carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and welders. Harold remembers that they would assemble each morning for a short worship service before taking up the work of the day. Those men exercised a tremendous influence on the young Harold Shryock, instilling in him a strong work ethic and a love for the creative process.
Harold also worked as a janitor for a few hours each week, cleaning the medical school buildings. Earning 12 cents an hour, he eventually saved $33, enough to buy a brand new bicycle from a Redlands bicycle shop.
When Harold was 14, the Shryock and Risley families vacationed in Yosemite Valley. The trip included a visit to Pacific Union College (PUC) on Howell Mountain near the St. Helena Sanitarium. During this visit, after seeing the developing facilities and hearing plans for the future, Harold's parents decided that he would someday attend PUC. The Shryocks wanted the best for their son, and the growing college with its beautiful surroundings, mountaintop location, and capable faculty, represented just that.
Harold Shryock’s childhood, impacted by parents who were so devoted to his potential educational superiority that they didn't adequately prepare him to meet life’s normal social challenges, left him an unsuspecting victim of their good intentions.
But, one major blessing in his childhood was his ability to find employment. Through hard work, he learned the dignity of labor and how to accept responsibility.
While a premedical student at Pacific Union College, the young man found that he was beginning to truly admire a vivacious 21-year-old Daisy Bagwell. In his mind, she was unusual—a combination of friendly but not frivolous.
An occasional comment in her conversation indicated that she'd been through some unpleasant experiences as a child and teenager, but it seemed that she'd learned to benefit from those difficulties. She appeared self-confident but not egotistical, and enjoyed a genuine Christian perspective.
Harold decided that he wanted to get to know her better. But how? As a prospective medical student, he'd soon finish his studies at PUC and return to Loma Linda. Daisy had one more year of nurse’s training to complete at the Saint Helena Sanitarium in the Napa Valley, and then she'd be concerned about passing the State Boards. Then there'd be career choices to make.
While she seemed mildly responsive to his desire to cultivate a friendship, they both realized that simple logistics weren't working in their favor.
In time Harold couldn't help feeling that maybe, just maybe, there could be more to his relationship with Daisy. He was learning, even at a young age, that the hand of Providence has a way of interfering with young men's dreams and the set-in-stone direction people arrange for their lives. In time, his inner thoughts would prove amazingly accurate.
Harold’s growing friendship with Daisy Bagwell was becoming more and more important to him. His parents had planned to visit for the weekend and he certainly didn't want to ignore them. But, he didn't want to ignore Daisy either.
One afternoon Harold introduced his parents to Daisy and a classmate at the St. Helena Sanitarium. “Very nice girls,” Mom and Dad said courteously before whisking their son away to meet and greet others in the crowd. Little did either of them know what a significant role Daisy would play in their son’s life.
To be continued...