1910 - 1974

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• Birth	10 Jan 1910	Pine Lake, Pine County, Minnesota   [1, 2, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Died	15 May 1974	On the Amtrak train enroute to Pasco, Washington   [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  	Cause: Heart failure
  Buried	18 May 1974	Coon Rapids, Anoka County, Minnesota   [3, 4, 5]
  Person ID	I58583	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	05 Mar 2006 00:00:00
  Father	Lanklyn Sylvester SPICER, b. 15 Aug 1884, Atkinson, Holt County, Nebraska
  Mother	Estella Mae O'CONNELL, b. 7 Dec 1891, Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa
  Family ID	F25425	Group Sheet
  Family 1	Ida Victoria HELLAND, b. 23 Mar 1913, Ellington Township, Dodge County, Minnesota
  Married	6 Jan 1932	Faribault, Rice County, Minnesota   [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  Children	1. SPICER   2. SPICER   3. SPICER   4. SPICER
  Family ID	F25422	Group Sheet
  Married	6 Jan 1932	Faribault, Rice County, Minnesota   [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  Family ID	F42687	Group Sheet

• Notes

  What kind of man was my grandfather Cecil? When I was 15 I had a cyst removed from my left wrist. After the surgery and when I was put in a regular room they were still having trouble getting me to wake up. They thought I just needed to sleep off the anesthesia but the truth is I was severely dehydrated. The staff wouldn't tell my parents what was going on, just that they couldn't see me until I was fully awake so my parents were left worrying in the waiting room for over 6 hours. In the meantime my grandpa who we called Gop or Goppy had also tried to see me and like my parents he was turned away at the nurses station. So there I was alone drifting in and out of consciousness. I remember struggling to wake up and being so frightened that I couldn't reach that state of consciousness. Even in that hazy state I knew enough to be scared that something wasn't right but not quite awake enough to do anything about it. Then suddenly through the fog in my brain I heard my grandpa Gop's sweet soothing voice telling me I was going to be OK because he was there for me now. Then a nurse came into my room. She was angry and told him I wasn't allowed visitors and ordered him to leave. He refused and began raging at her about the inadequate care I was getting. Couldn't they see the reason I wasn't coming to was because I was severely dehydrated!! I was not having trouble coming out of the anesthesia, I was so dehydrated I couldn't regain consciousness! The nursed finally took a good looked at me. My lips were cracked, my skin gray and dry - I must have looked awful because the next thing I knew I was being jabbed with needles in both arms as they set me up for IV's. They pushed the fluids in me as fast as they could and soon I was able to become fully alert. My grandfather had a severe heart problem and he was not suppose to climb stairs or do anything that would strain his heart yet when he got turned away at the nurses station he went down to the main floor, found a back stairway and walked up 3 flights of stairs in order find me. And he snuck in and out of rooms until he did find me! His perseverance probably saved my life. Of course my mom was extremely grateful that her stubborn father was so determined to see me that he snuck his way in, but she was also very upset that he had climbed all of those stairs and risked his own life in order to get to me. And that is the kind of man my grandpa, my "Goppy", Cecil William Spicer was.

• Sources

  [S757] Julie Knutson.FBK.GED, Julie Knutson Milan. Date of Import: Jul 29, 2001 [S758] Julie Knutson-Milan.FBK.FTW, Julie Knutson Milan. Date of Import: Jul 29, 2001 [S755] William Harrison Spicer.FTW. Date of Import: Jul 29, 2001 [S756] Spicer.FTW. Date of Import: Jul 30, 2001 [S65] Spicer Family File.FTW. Date of Import: Jul 30, 2001