Who was she?

As long as I can remember, I've wanted more stories about the woman in the picture. I wanted to know what she looked like. I wanted to know what she was like. I wanted to hear stories about her. I wanted to know her through those who had known her.

She's my grandmother. She died about a year after this picture was taken at the age of 25. My father rarely talked about her. When he did it was usually just stating he didn't remember much about her. I never had the nerve to ask my grandfather, her husband, about her. Ditto, my aunt, who was six when her mother died. And the baby she's holding was only two when his mother died, so he doesn't have any memories of his mother. In fact, he couldn't verify this was his mother.

Who was this woman? I still don't know. There's a chance that I will never know exactly who she was.

But in my quest to find out who she was, I've learned so much about those who did know her.

I already knew who her parents were. I knew who her sister was. The genealogy aspect I pretty much knew.

I don't know if she liked to garden, or did she knit? Was she a good cook? When she wasn't busy with raising her children or tending to her chores, what did she like to do? Did she like to read a few paragraphs of a book or newspaper? Or did she spend her time gazing out a window dreaming of their future, or far away places?

Maybe the best thing to know about her is what I already know. How much impact she had on those who knew her. Her parents loved her enough to give up their child free life and move in with their son-in-law and three motherless grandchildren. Her husband loved her enough to go get her parents, pay off their debts and move them in with him to help him raise his children.

Her husband had lost his own mother at the age of twelve. He knew what it was like to live in a home without a mother. He also knew that his youngest brother had been raised for a few years by their aunt until he was old enough that he didn't need a mother constantly with him. Did he have enough time to assure his wife that he would make sure her children would be raised with him and with a mother figure? When they knew it was too late for her, did she suggest to him that he should bring her parents to his house?

I don't know. I'll never know. I know that is what happened.

I also know that before the woman in this picture died, my grandfather loved to dress up in suits. I didn't know it until after I'd started researching my family. It surprised me how many pictures of him dressed up there were.

At what point he decided to do it, I don't know, but from everything I've heard and seen, after her funeral he took his suit off and he did not put another one for the rest of his life.

He was buried in a suit and tie. At the time I thought it was disrespectful of who he'd been in life. Now I realize it was respectful of who he had been in life. He dressed up for his wife. It's only fitting that he met her on the other side in a suit and tie.

Who was the woman in this picture? A young woman who was loved very deeply by a man who probably didn't tell her often enough how much he loved her, but lived the rest of his life honoring her in his own silent way.

After learning all that, what else can define her short life any better?

This is why I search for information on those wonderful ancestors of mine.