Radio-TV mirror (Jan-June 1954)

5 DRESSES For A NOW AVAILABLE! BRAND NEW ASSORTMENT OF BEAUTIFUL SMART STYLE DRESSES ' Now you can look smart and stylish with sensational low priced glamorous dresses that have been cleaned and pressed — in good condition for all occasions! A tremendous assortment of gorgeous ones and two piece modern styles in all beautiful colors — in a variety of luxurious fabrics of rayons, cottons, gabardines, woolens, silks, etc. Expensive dresses —original value up to $40! FREE! 12 Different Sets of Button Cards! 5 to 8 matched buttons on each card. Worth a few dollars — but yours Free with dress order. Girl's Sizes 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 are 5 for $2.75 Junior Miss Sizes 9, 11, 13, 15 are 5 for $3.75 Women's Sizes 12 to 20 and 38 to 44 are 5 for $3.75 Extra Large Sizes 46 48 50 52 are 5 for $4.75 Money Back Guarantee! Send $1 deposit, balance C.O.D. plua postage. Or send full amount with 25c postage and save C.O.D. fee. Your money returned if not completely satisfied. Limited time offer — so rush order TODAY ! Canadian and foreign orders accepted; no C.O.D GUILD p^^*.^... Depr. 688 V-..l,*> fc.l w Send for FREE CATALOG For Family! HEW! had been here for a short time earlier, as substitute for Dick Stark on some of the Ivory Soap shows, and he loved the city. Once again their faith was justified, for Todd got a job as master of ceremonies on Double Or Nothing just a week before Christmas — after being in New York only two weeks. "Our friends in Canada wouldn't believe it wasn't a put-up job. They never have been convinced that I didn't have that spot all lined up before I quit Toronto," laughs Todd. He has been with Rootie Kazootie since the show started three years ago. To Todd, the puppet characters are real. He loves them — and the children who watch the show — and his youthful audience responds with an affection for Big Todd as great as his own. Todd and Edna would have liked to have children, of course. And an occasional doctor or two (their lives have been full of doctors) gave them hope that maybe someday it would be possible. At one time they thought of adopting a baby. They talked about it at great length but they decided that, while it would be fine when the baby was little, a sturdy toddler with a penchant for getting into everything would be too much for Edna to cope with, and that it wouldn't be fair either to the child or to themselves. Now they have given up the idea, and do not brood about it. This is part of the secret of their existence— their ability to adjust to and accept the circumstances of their lives. They have so much, they think, that it would be ungrateful to complain about the things that are denied them. Edna's father died when she was seven and, when her mother had to go to work, she placed Edna in a convent until she was seventeen. "I loved every minute of it," says Edna, "although I am not a Catholic." But there is no doubt that she retains some of the serenity and discipline of convent life. It shows in her quiet speech, her calm approach to things. Todd was born in Manchester, England, but grew up in Canada and lost every trace of his English accent. He is the opposite of Edna, being quick, ebullient, rather explosive. Although the Russells do not consider themselves very religious, their life has been built on prayer and faith. "Yes," says Todd, "I pray a great deal. I never pray for myself or anything unimportant like a job or money. But I have prayed for Edna, and I have had occasion to thank God many times. A few years ago, Edna got virus pneumonia, which, because of her condition, became crucial at once. Our doctor called in a heart specialist and a diagnostician. The heart man gave Edna only a fifty-fifty chance and thought I was callous when I said to him that that was good enough for me. I knew that, given an even break, Edna, with the help of God, would make it. And she did. "During that time, I was astonished at the number of our friends who called me up and told me they were praying for her. We had Catholic friends, Jewish friends, Baptist and Episcopalian friends, all of whom were praying in their own way to the same God. Our two Negro maids were Christian Scientists and they brought a practitioner to the street in front of the house. When Edna got better, as I never lost faith that she would, I told the doctor that I didn't know whether to thank him or God, and the doctor looked me straight in the eye and told me to thank the Man Upstairs. "You know," says Todd, "Edna has courage. She has a searching mind, too, and demands the truth from the doctors. But that time when she had pneumonia she called me into the bedroom and said, <A^7'V> o+Tg +V)Q Ki cr T-»rv*w"lTi/"»"Hr»'n ^ M ■MW^^ doctors, what's going on?' So I told her she had pneumonia. Edna looked at me and laughed. Then she said, 'Is that all? I thought it was something serious.' And the next day she was better." Four years ago, the Russells were given a new hope. They were in Hollywood for a brief nine months, but in that time they heard of a new operation which was then being studied for people with Edna's condition of mitral-stenosis. Hollywood doctors told them that they might possibly, just possibly, look forward to the day when Edna, too, could have this operation performed. When they came back to New York, they talked to doctors, went to specialists, spent weeks, months, years of hoping. And, just four months ago, Edna underwent the operation at New York's Beth Israel Hospital. So new is this heart surgery that Edna Russell was only the twenty-second patient upon whom it had been .done at that hospital. But such was their faith that never for a moment did they hesitate before this, the greatest gamble of their lives. They do not say, of course, what each of them may have been thinking in his innermost heart during those fateful weeks of tests before the surgeons and specialists decided that she might have the operation. Nor did they even voice to each other the thought that maybe it was their biggest gamble. But that it was a gamble there could be no doubt. For, when the moment came for the surgeon to enlarge the swollen and calcified valve with his finger, he suddenly said, "I can't do it." He had found something unusual in her condition. Her own doctor, attending the operation, and the surgeon's assistant walked away from the table. A moment later, the surgeon chanced it and the operation was over. Successfully. The night before the operation, so secure in their love and faith were Edna and Todd that their good night was no different from any other night. Edna just said, "See you tomorrow," and Todd said, "Sure." They won their gamble. Although the operation is only four months back of her, Edna can walk a few blocks without gasping for breath. She can make her own bed. And this, she says, is the greatest thrill of all. That simple little act, perhaps more than any other, illustrates how Edna and Todd have lived all these years. Things, ordinary little humdrum chores, were impossible for Edna, and her joy in now being able to do them is touching. Touching, too, is the little motion she makes every now and then to feel her heart beat. "You see," she explains softly when she sees she is observed, "for years, whenever I sat in a chair I could feel my heart thumping through my back. Now it is so silent I have to feel it to know it is still beating." The surgeons, the specialists, the doctors attribute part of Edna's recovery to her courage and tenacity. Even surgical miracles can fail to come off unless there is faith and will to bolster them. Now, the doctors say that Edna will be able to lead an almost normal life by the end of a year. But the Russells are not surprised. Of course the operation was going to be successful. Of course Edna would be almost completely well again. They never doubted it for a moment. For their love story is more than a love story. It is the story of a partnership in courage and faifh. Todd could not have done the things he has done without Edna. And Edna could not have beat a crippling heart condition, bouts of pneumonia and a drastic operation without a reason for living. Edna Russell is alive today because she wanted to be. Because she had faith, courage and above all — Todd.