Today, in South Lubec, I had the amazing chance to step inside a house from my maternal grandmother Nora's past. I have driven, beginning at 9 years old and subsequently every visit to Lubec since, past this Victorian. It's on the road to West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, so anyone who has visited there has driven by as well. It was built as a summerhouse by my grandmother's Uncle Albert, who lived primarily in Eastport, once serving as the mayor of that city. His mother, my GGGrandmother, with a name only gifted in the past, Wealthy Ellen, lived there with him after my gggrandfather died.
In the collage you can see the house then, and now, my grandmother and her brother dressed in clothes from past era standing beside the house. The next photo is my great grandmother who died in childbirth after delivering my great Uncle Paul when my grandmother was only 2. Both children were then cared for by their grandparents in the house behind the Victorian until their father married again. The cenotaph was erected by my gg grandparents in memory of their daughter. She is buried in the town cemetery. In the last photo I'm holding a board with my gg uncle's name, A.H. Leavitt written on it. These new owners found it in the house and suspect it once was part of the delivery of of lumber when the house was being built, probably around 1893.
The new owners are as eager as I am to find out more, so we shall keep in touch and share information. I have more photos to share with them and they have local research with deeds, etc. to share. Some of what they knew was from a chapter in a book about Lubec that I contributed to. The owner took it off the shelf to show me and I laughed and told her my involvement with the book.
It was a very emotional experience. I broke down in tears when I saw the cenotaph for Lulu Ellen, my great grandmother, 25 years old, leaving a loving husband, a 2 year old and a newborn. So many women died in childbirth. I have heard so many story fragments, wishing always that I had asked so much more, but today I stepped into those memories in a very real way.
For the Record,
This day came in breezy with clouds that cleared it was an amazingly gorgeous day with incredible clouds grain a blue, blue sky. We walked on the beach at Carrying Cove, visited the lighthouse again and saw an amazing sunset and moonrise.
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
