For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I will be posting an event for that date involving someone in my family tree. Of course it will also involve the letter of the day. It may be a birth, a death, a christening, a journal entry, a letter or a newspaper article. If the entry is a news item, it will be transcribed immediately below. Click on photographs to enlarge in another window.
On April 28, 1929 Howard Graham’s first tooth appeared. Howard Alexander Graham was my mother’s youngest brother. He was named after my grandmother Fannie’s father, Howard Turner. Howard was born September 7, 1928, in the year following his older brother Mershell’s death by trauma after being run over by a truck on the way back to school. My grandparents felt that Howard had been sent to fill the space left by Mershell. Unfortunately he died of Scarlet Fever, exacerbated by Diabetes in 1932.
The only reason I have this xeroxed copy of a page from Howard’s baby book is that I needed an “X”. I had the tooth appearing on April 28, so I copied it and using the make-it-look-like a xerox function on my GIMP photo program, I made myself an “X” for the A to Z challenge.
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Other posts about Howard Graham
N – NINETEEN TWENTY EIGHT Howard Graham was born
Baby’s First Photograph – 1929
Howard Alexander Graham Death Certificate – 1932
Excellent memories
Howard was the only one with a baby book.
I’m just sitting here thinking about your grandparents and how hard it must have been to lose children so tragically.
It was. The whole family would have been different if they had lived.
Great way to tackle X.
I didn’t have any April x-rays. All I had was that tooth.
That’s a fun way to get the X post!
Are there even xeroxes any more?
Such a touching post. Howard’s death reminds us of how tenuous life was for children decades ago — and how precarious it threatens to become again in our current era. Bravo for finding a way to work him into A to Z to capture a high point of his brief life. And thanks for your comments on my blog. Maybe you’d like to join me in the book journey? Your rich family history would make excellent reading in printed form. We could blog about our blog-to-book experiences!
interesting idea.
That was an inventive way to deal with X and xerox. Those poor parents, losing both those children.
Yes it was. It was hard on the daughters too. If only they could have survived.
How cool to see the old photo and baby book page. Love the use of X for Xerox, too!
– Allison
https://lightningflashwriting.blogspot.com/
I could think of no other X to relate it too, so I was glad my photo program had a xerox function. Whew.
So creative mommy!
I have learned to bend those letters to my will after 13 Challenges. LOL
Ha, way to wangle an X!
Hahaha. I enjoyed doing that. 😀
Great workaround for X. But a rather sobering post – must have been heartbreaking for your grandparents to lose their children. How precarious life was for young kids a century ago. And still is sadly for some kids even now.
It was heartbreaking and I’m sure it took a lot of the joy out of the household, even though it was not a sad or depressing place when we grandchildren came along and visited, still, I got the idea from my mother that things were more somber than I think they would have been if the boys had lived.
And yes, it’s still a precarious life for many, many children.