My mother died from a heart attack in 1985. She never met my late husband Mike nor my current husband, Stu, but I hope she is watching over us and that she knows how wonderful my life has been. She was 61 when she died, I’ve outlived her by almost four years now.
My brother recently found some old slides, cleaned them up as best he could and scanned them. The photo on the left is me at maybe age one and my mother. I adjusted the colors a little and I treasure this long lost photo.
She had a tough life growing up as an orphan in the foster care system in Massachusetts. In the 1920’s and 30’s, foster children were often placed as household help, farm help, babysitters and for the lucky, as companions for only children. She told us stories of her placements, her favorite being a companion to the only daughter of a physician. Others weren’t as pleasant and she didn’t talk that much about them.
In her teen years she was placed in a wonderful home with two other foster children as companions to the only child. She spent the rest of her unmarried life there and I gained a set of grandparents as well as aunts and eventually uncles and cousins. She attended nursing school at Children’s Hospital in Boston, becoming an R.N., a career she followed till her death.
