I have a few sister pairs in my family tree, but I couldn't resist the chance to talk about my Nain and her younger sister for this one. I have been told that my great-grandmother was very close to her younger sister, Catherine. They were born three years apart, and were two of the three youngest children of their family. Truly, I do not know much about their life or their friendship, only that Nain was very close to her sister.
I do know of a trip I believe they took together down to Seattle to the Alaskan Yukon Gold Rush Exposition. We have lots of shots of that trip, which was a long way to come in those days. We even have a few pictures of my great grandmother here in Seattle, which I have always been fond of once I found them.
As married women, they both lived in Vancouver, BC, and I imagine they likely spent a good deal of time together with their young children, though I imagine that got more difficult as they grew older. Nain had three girls before her sister had her first child, and her sister had only boys, though when my great uncle was born in the early 20s, I'm sure their children had fun playing together.
I wish I knew more about Catherine's life, because the records I find show that by the end of it, she was likely a very unhappy woman. I found a record of a daughter who died in infancy, and she had a series of at least five quick pregnancies in a row. It's a hard thing on a woman's body, just having one child. And to lose a child, and continue to have more so quickly, I'm sure had a detrimental effect on her mental health. The only reason I think this is because in 1937, she was sent to Essondale. In Vancouver, saying the name Essondale is equivalent to saying Bellevue in the US. It was an asylum. And not the good kind. I won't go into details here, but it was finally closed down in 1983, after a long history of some of the worst kinds of offences against mental patients.
Catherine was not there long. Apparently she had a major depressive episode. She was there less than a month. The death certificate I have doesn't give details, only a statement that she died of "Exhaustion of Manic-Depressive Psychosis." I can only imagine what was truly wrong. Possibly the effects of untreated postpartum depression. Women's issues simply weren't given the right attention in those days. I try not to be angry at her husband for the fact that she ended up there. I don't know enough of their marriage to know if they were happy or not. All I know is that my great-great aunt was only 45 when she died, leaving behind at least two living sons, possibly as many as four, according to the records I have found.
It makes me sad, knowing that my Nain lost her sister this way, given how close she felt to her. I wish I'd known about her, and gotten to talk to Nain about her. I would have loved to hear her stories about her little sister, and their happy times together.
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