This is my father’s mother, Ethel, at 18 with her friend, Annie, who is holding the swing’s rope. I believe they are in a photography studio, or possibly at a fair. 

From oral family history I learned that Ethel was a well-known local pianist who in her early 20’s gave concerts throughout the state of Georgia. 

In 1898 at 23, Ethel married my grandfather, Raymond, and several years later they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where my grandfather worked as a railway car salesman and Ethel taught music. 

On August 13, 1909, during the home birth of my father, Ethel contracted blood poisoning (sepsis), due to lack of sterile conditions during the delivery.

As there was no antibiotic cure for blood poisoning at the time; and, knowing she had only about two months to live, Ethel requested that she, her husband and baby son return to the family home in Georgia. There, in Georgia, Ethel, passed away on October 24, 1909 at the age of 34.