Faithful, and a Little Different

Annie Jane was the oldest surviving child of The Irish Matriarch, born in 1867. She lived with her Mom, or right next door, for her whole life. She became a widow after 26 years of marriage, and stayed with her Mom, and then her niece Vi for the rest of her life. This faithfulness to her family must have been a strength to others through the years.

There was another side to her, some parts which are known by me, while others are inferred or assumed. My earliest picture of her, as a child in her mothers' arms, show her as pretty, but a little distant. When time came to marry, she chose a neighbor that was twenty years her senior. Never having children of her own, she helped raise three nieces. In the 1930 census, she might be marked as "insane" by the census taker; it appears that it could be an errant mark on the page. At the end of her life, she joined her niece Vi's family when they sold the "Homestead" and moved to the Woodbourne development in 1952. At that point, she was a recluse, staying in her room constantly. She lived there until her death in 1956, at the age of 89.