My photo albums are all still in storage in Santa Fe, NM, so I don't have any pictures of her later in life. But I do have these very old photos of her on my computer:
This one is my favorite! She is 11 or 12 here. I can tell, because she has the awful haircut required by the Liverpool Blue Coat School for Orphans and Fatherless Children, where my grandmother placed her in October of 1936. I know that the boarding school was like a prison to her, but in this photo she looks so happy. It must have been on a school holiday. I don't know where she was, what she was pointing to, or whose dog that is. Look at the face on the dog!
This is Mom's passport picture taken in 1940. She was 14 and about to come home to the U.S.
And this one was taken in June 1940. She'd returned to the U.S., where her mother was about to marry a widower with two children for whom Grandma was governess. There's a story there, but we'll never know it! You can see how tentative Mom looks in this picture. That's probably how she felt - for years she'd been stuck in a boarding school in England, and now that Grandma finally brought her home, she was to be part of a new family - a stepfather, step-brother and step-sister to whom she was the outsider. Fortunately, the step-father, Pop, was a nice man.
This is the poem I wrote for Mom's memorial service:
I’ll
Remember You
(A poem for Mom)
by Melissa Ann Goodwin
I’ll
remember you
on
the rocks at Gray’s,
knitting
needles clacking
and
the seagulls flocking.
When
sunny days seem to
last forever
and
thunder rolls
like
a distant drummer,
I’ll
remember you,
in
summer.
I’ll
remember you
at
the kitchen door,
as
I waved goodbye
‘neath
an autumn sky.
When
leaves are piled
and chestnuts fall
with
bittersweet vines
and
popcorn balls,
I’ll
remember you,
in
fall.
I’ll
remember you
knitting
mittens
by
a fire warm
in
a snowy storm.
When
stars shine bright
like cosmic glitter
and
snowflakes fly
and
winds blow bitter,
I’ll
remember you,
in
winter.
I’ll
remember you
on
days in May,
when
poppies bloom
and
winter’s gloom is
left behind.
When
all the world
feels
fresh and new
And
robins sing,
I’ll
remember you,
in
spring.
Love and Miss you, Mom! xoxo
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