Life was hard then. Winters came just after Halloween and stayed until almost Easter. Summertime there was more work than ten men could do, but winters were filled with nothing but empty hours. The men could get away to the woodshed where they kept their whiskey, but a woman was just plain stuck. Nothing to eat but root vegetables and salt meat, children always on your nerves.

It’s no wonder she went crazy, you ask me. They came and locked her up in the county farm for the rest of her life.  After the funerals, they tore the house down.