Tintype sisters

Sisters in Tin

Types stiffly stoic timing their breaths
Hats, hankies, tight buttons, still hands.
The studio, the set, not the hint of a breeze
Camera lens of the day freezing their forms,
Faded faces far older than their calendar years.

The Wormell sisters once six, now only five
Selinda gone two decades before
Wife and motherly duties shouldered and borne
By the straw hatted sister there standing in the back.
Was it love, or expected, we'll just never know.

Stepping in again as the years wore on, she was
Called on once more, second string, yet again
To shelter my Nora as grandmother, then
Mother when the beloved flesh of her flesh her
Young Lulu Ellen was lost bearing Paul.

Special stand-in with riches not counted in gold,
Bearing a heavy name that covered it all,
Wealthy Ellen Wormell Leavitt
My great grandmother times three,
'Wessie', the sister with wealth of the heart
And the hint of my nose.

for Jean


I have been lucky enough through the ever searching eye of the internet to locate a long lost relative, here is the tale for those feeling like a story .

When G ad I did the Nora Project together I began wondering about my grandmother's brother Paul, born when she was two. Nora's mother, Lulu Ellen, died days after that birth. Infant Paul and toddler Nora were taken in by their maternal grandparents, Wealthy Ellen and Loring Leavitt of South Lubec, Maine. As was the custom at the time, a widower was not expected to take on the job of raising his young children until he remarried. So, the task was left to the Leavitts and his parents, the Mahoneys in that seaside village. Nora's father Eugene eventually remarried a younger woman who long outlived him, dying at 102 when when my grandmother, her step daughter, was 83. They had a son, Max, brought up with Nora and Paul when the family reunited.

I met Paul and Max each just once, when I was around the age of ten, on a family vacation trip to coastal Maine. Nora always proudly displayed a photograph of Paul's son Eugene in his Air Force Uniform in the front room here. I of course didn't ask enough of those questions we all wish we had asked and after Nora died in 1989, he became just a faint memory.

The work with Nora's diaries and photographs uncovered images of a younger Paul with his wife and his own children, that son Eugene later in Nora's displayed photo and had a son and two daughters. I began to wonder if they had children and Googled Eugene's name. Up popped his obituary and contained within was the name of a daughter. I suspected she might be close to my age, and she lived in Maine. So, I googled further and came up with her address and phone number. I recall once last spring relating this story in a blip and wondering if I should call or write. After much thought, I decided to send her a line, to see if she was actually the long lost cousin I was seeking, one who also would be Wealthy Ellen's great great great granddaughter as well.

She was indeed and we have shared much since last spring. She has showered me with exquisitely handcrafted gifts and wonderful photographs and letters. I have shared my bounty of family photographs lovingly captured saved and passed down from the thin woman in the straw hat with a very wealthy heart. For this I am very grateful, the sharing, the connections, the blood ties more meaningful in a maternal family with no sisters since these old Wormall dears pictured circa 1885. J recently told me I'm like the sister she never had. How wonderful is that!!!? Heartfelt thanks to Mr. Google and his ever searching eye.

For the Record,
This day came in with wild wind and rain that lashed the house all night and kept me awake.

The plans have been made for T's sister in law's service and we hope that the family we expect from up north are not snowed in, and can join us. Those plans are in the making, with heavy hearts.

It seems like we will be able to see our traveling friends as well, Sunday afternoon and Monday at least before two have to fly home to California on January 1st.