Time travel

She is beautiful, her age is 29 and she has just lost her husband and now has their daughter (my paternal grandmother) to care for by herself. Looking at the picture I see that I have her nose and maybe her eyes and lips too (when I was younger). She died before I was born yet here (and at such a young age) she is faced with a bleak future for there is no widows pension, no family to support her or her 10 year old daughter. Her husband Frederick was an insurance agent when few people could afford to think of a future without a partner. I hope he did so but she still needed security so later married a man who managed a public house (or tavern) for a local brewery. Her daughter Maud married and their first child was my father and as a child he used to visit them then finally lived with his grandmother and his new step-grandfather and they helped to bring him up in the 1920's. I wish I had met her for I would loved to thank her for being part of me.

                                                        I see me in her
                                                 In overcoming sadness
                                                        Never giving up


Note that in her hand there is the traditional mourning card and that her clothes are typical of funeral wear of the period which she would have worn for some time.


Image of Sarah Ann Harvey (nee Hipwell) 1893