Figuring out what I wanna be when I grow up.
Oop..I AM grown up...


Saturday, July 17, 2010

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Take a look at this picture for a moment or two:



This is a picture of my great grandfather, his first wife, and their young family. My grandfather is the little boy standing closest to my great grandfather. Look at how beautifully everyone is dressed. Gladys, the little girl standing on the left, will have died from tuberculosis in 1933.

This picture was taken, I believe, in 1915. It was taken as the last family photo, before my great grandmother died from tuberculosis. The entire family knows that she is dying.

Now, take another look.

10 comments:

  1. Powerful and beautiful and sad picture. Thank-you for taking the effort and time to share it, as well as the history. Kinda makes me regret whining about whining on your last blog post.

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  2. I think you are awesome. Serious talent. Why don't you have a book published? There is so much crap out there. Did you ever send that book to a publisher? About the mailman and the fat girl and mean mom? I read it 13 years ago and I still think it's cool. And this is from someone who reads A LOT of books.

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  3. Hey my great grandpa! I remember him so well Karen!
    And what this poor family faced when their mom died... A HORRIBLE Step mother to raise them !
    All the stories my dad told me of what she did to those kids. Our poor grandpa.

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  4. Really, Pam? I didn't know she was a horrible step-mother. My dad has pleasant memories of her. Now I'll have to ask him--he has lots of good stories.

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  5. Paula, thanks. The only thing I've had published so far is a poem! Procrastinateur extraordinaire. I still have that story in hard copy in the basement. If I ever get my @$$ in gear, I'll get the book I've been working on recently finished and sent off!

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  6. and finally, Matt--whining is DE RIGUEUR here. There'd be no blog without it.

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  7. oh my she was extremely cold! She rubbed salt on her lips and made them all kiss her and said See this is what its like to kiss me. So they never did again. Remember though your dad was the youngest so usually alot of things are kepted from the youngest child. I knew her well she was very unaffectionate. He married her because of convenience and she had lots of money. I have more stories so does Uncle Harry.
    She was very abusive to Grandpa as well. Just a nasty woman.
    She also didn't not believe in God. Had no funeral for great grandpa and didn't believe in flowers....i was sitting in her right beside her when she said this.

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  8. Boy i made lots of errors typing there! Thats what happens when people talk to you when you are typing!
    Anyways when great grandma was dying she told her husband to go back to England to marry her best friend. So on the boat he met this woman and she side tracked him by telling him she was single and how much money she had....so the bugger married her lol !
    She sold every stick of the old wifes beautiful furniture even got rid of great grandpas dog when he went to work. I never liked her and my dad used to make me go there all the time to visit but i liked great grandpa.

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  9. wow i am stunned you guys have all of this history!!! and you can yack on about it and have pictures to prove it....very cool.

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  10. this is all fascinating. I just heard the "salt on the lips" story today, but according to my dad, Papa (Grandpa to everyone else), said that she did that because she was "afraid of germs." Dad said she wasn't demonstrative with her affection, but she would show she cared in her actions. Papa was working on a farm in his youth and got sick, and Great Grandma made him some soup, wrapped it up and walked for MILES in a blizzard to come take care of him. Hm--very interesting though. There are always two sides to every story.

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