Grandma Slater's Heroic Deliverance of the Flashlight for the Christmas Baby
Published October 23, 2026 at 3:06 AM
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Young Woman's Journal Research
Grandma Slater, an eighty-six-year-old hospital patient with a broken ankle, listened through the night to the sounds of a laboring mother in the hall. Realizing the room was in total darkness during a blackout and that the physician was struggling to deliver the baby, the frail grandmother crawled out of her bed and dragged herself across the cold floor to the hall, carrying her precious flashlight. She offered it to the nurse, providing the light needed to safely deliver the infant (who was her granddaughter, Elsie). Grandma Slater passed away shortly after from the strain of the exertion.
In Their Own Words
“The House Doctor marvelled at his skill, then utter darkness filled the room. The Youngest Nurse ran for candles. Part way along the hall she nearly stumbled over a queer old figure, creeping over the cold tiling, dragging a useless leg. 'Grandma!' cried theYoungest Nurse, stooping quickly. 'What—where, why you're out of your head!' 'I ain’t,' contradicted the high voice, tense with excitement. 'Give him, that doctor, this flashlight. I had nine children with nary a doctor, but the lamps held out!' With her free hand she snapped on the precious light, offered her gift with an air of triumph.— The Young Woman's Journal 35:12”
Sources & References
The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 35 no. 12 (December 1924). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/25630 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high)
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