My paternal grandmother Mary Kenyon Rigg

My paternal grandmother, Mary Kenyon Rigg, She was from Rhode Island or Connecticut. I need to ask my uncle before he forgets.

My grandmother was one of 5 kids. Only she and a sister made it to adulthood. Three siblings died in the 1910s either from Spanish flu or possibly this congenital heart issue that her son/my dad had that was unknown at the time.

Amazingly, she graduated from Radcliffe circa 1932. With a degree in Latin & Greek. Did she have career ambitions? Never had a paid job, just motherhood and ironing and baking gingerbread cookies at Christmas.

She had 4 children. The 3rd child caught polio at age 5 — about 2 years before the vaccine. He lived but had a disabled arm, and had many surgeries and treatments over the years

Her 4th child — my dad— was born with a heart problem severe enough to be diagnosed without ultrasound in 1947. She was told he might die before making 18. Then at 6, he got a bone disease that caused him to be in a hip to ankle cast for 6 months. Can you imagine coping with a bed bound, energetic, smart-ass 6 year old for 6 months? This may be when the drinking started…

Meanwhile her husband (my grandfather) had a job with the railroad where the family would move every 2 years around the NorthEast. She had to gather up 4 children (two with medical issues) and school records and medical records and the household and start over somewhere new. Over and over.

My eventual point being that by the 1950s, my grandmother had a drinking problem. Electroshock therapy was the treatment then. I’m sure it was brutal but also, Jesus Christ, it may have also been a vacation from her life.

I wish I’d known her more. She passed when I was 8 and she was 65. I associate sour candies, big thick gingerbread cookies, cats, begonias and congestive heart failure with her.