Tuesday, March 05, 2019

Aunt Margaret

I have an aunt named Margaret. She was born in 1925. She died in 1943, some 20 years before I was born, from peritonitis. It's been 75 years since she left the world, far too soon. If you Google her name, you get one image, from her high school yearbook, published in 1942, courtesy of the Little Chute (WI) Historical Society:

All ahead of her, until it wasn't

She was a brilliant young woman. Everyone who knew her said as much. She was also a writer. I have always been told she was very good, but I've not read a word she wrote. That will change soon. My cousin came across some old papers of hers, including books of poetry she'd written. He is sending them to me. I am eager to read them and I may share some of it in this space.

3 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

Some historical threads are so very frail. I'm glad that you'll soon have the chance to gently touch this one.

Bike Bubba said...

Glad to hear of this blessing for you. We forget so soon how much we owe to treatments like antibiotics these days.

Mr. D said...

We forget so soon how much we owe to treatments like antibiotics these days.

Yes. Penicillin existed in 1943, but it was scarce and most of what was available went to the war effort. Had my aunt’s appendix burst in, say, 1947, she might have had 50-60 years more to live.