[5] Around age two "Bertie", as he was called during that time, contracted a serious bout of croup, and was momentarily thought to have died until resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn.[6] As a young child he was often referred to by his father as "my little stick in the mud" when he repeatedly got trapped in the mud crossing the unpaved street.[7] Herbert's family figured prominently in the town's public prayer life, due almost entirely to mother Hulda's role in the church.[8] As a child, Hoover consistently attended schools, but he did little reading on his own aside from the Bible.[9] Hoover's father, noted by the local paper for his "pleasant, sunshiny disposition", died in 1880 at the age of 34 of a sudden heart attack.[10] Hoover's mother died in 1884 of typhoid, leaving Hoover, his older brother, Theodore, and his younger sister, May, as orphans.[11] Hoover lived the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover at a nearby farm.