Arthritis

Arthritis was a persistent bodily constraint in Joyce Simdars’s life, shaping what kinds of work she could bear and making the search for a livelihood physically costly. First described as beginning in her midteens, it appears again years later in the swollen, aching feet with which she walked Seattle’s streets looking for work.

Onset and daily effects

Joyce began suffering from arthritis in her midteens; the narrative describes it as apparently inherited from her father. Its effects were not incidental to her daily routine. Washing dishes, scrubbing floors, and wiping windows aggravated the pain in her hands and wrists, turning the repetitive housework expected of her into a recurring physical burden.

Work, pain, and refuge

The household’s outdoor tasks offered a contrast. Whenever she could, Joyce slipped away to the vegetable garden or helped her father tend the animals. She preferred this work to housework, which both aggravated her hands and kept her within her mother’s watchful presence. The account presents outdoor labor not as a cure for arthritis but as work she found more engaging and a temporary escape from domestic confinement.

The search for work in Seattle

Years later, after arriving in Seattle to attend university, Joyce needed employment to pay for tuition, food, and books. With few available job advertisements and no references or documented experience to satisfy prospective employers, she focused on domestic service, despite her dislike of cleaning and cooking. Rather than pay bus fare, she walked to interviews in the Laurelhurst neighborhood and up Capitol Hill. On one hot afternoon, after another discouraging interview, she began knocking on doors; her feet were swollen and aching as she made her way up long walkways to the houses. A local judge eventually offered her a trial in the previous maid’s uniform. It fit, and she got the job. Arthritis thus accompanies both the physical costs of the work Joyce least wanted and the effort required to secure the income she needed to continue her education.