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Jane's Illness: Home Life, Beginnings of Mania, and Mental Illness as a Cause of Death

Nähendes Mädchen by Hermann Lindenschmit, 1900 ( rawpixel.com )   In my last post about my great-great-grandmother Maria Jane Darragh and her acute mania diagnosis, I wrote about some theories I've formed about what happened to her. (Catch up on previous posts about Jane  here , here , and here .) In this post, I'll begin exploring my theories and discoveries. But first, let's set the stage.   Jane's Home Life in St. Catharines Jane and her husband Charles Francis Cassidy married in St. Catharines in 1883 and settled into married life there. 1 At the time, St. Catharines was the largest and most populous town on the Niagara Peninsula and a thriving port city located on the Welland Canal. During Jane's life in St. Catharines, the population hovered around 10,000 residents. The city drew manufacturing, milling, shipping, and supporting businesses. 2 St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines in 1877, a few years before Charles and Jane married. (Photo court...
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Mom's Big Trip

Mom, and friends Janet and Zora, in traditional Croatian costumes, taken at Braddock, Pennsylvania, May 1953.
By Nancy Gilbride Casey

"Boy were we surprised. We never expected anything like this hotel." 

A trip to Pittsburgh was the ultimate in excitement for a 15-year old from Cleveland, Ohio, back in 1953, if a letter home is any indication. My mother, then Anna Margaret "Margie" Kozlina, had just checked in to The Penn-Lincoln Hotel in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. Mom was a member of a Cleveland-based Croatian dance ensemble, and had set out to perform at a Kolo festival in the Pittsburgh area.

Mom was exposed to kolo by her father's family, who immigrated from Croatia in the early 1900s. A traditional communal dance, it is performed in a closed circle, a single chain or in two parallel lines. One of many European chain dances surviving from ancient times, kolo is spirited and often fast-moving. 1  (Click here to view a video of a kolo dance from the Sv. Jana region of Croatia; 2  my great grandmother Vjekoslava "Louise" Baltorinic, was born in Sv. Jana, near Zagreb, Croatia.)

Mom's postcard and a longer letter capture her wide-eyed thrill at staying in a fancy hotel—on probably her first solo trip away from her family—as well as youthful antics with her friends. Four photos of her troupe taken on a hillside in Braddock, Pennsylvania provide a visual backdrop to her exciting teenage adventure.

It's a wonderful snapshot of a time in Mom's life which she clearly treasured.

Penn-Lincoln Hotel, where Mom stayed in May 1953.

Writing home to the family in Cleveland.




Captioned on the photo reverse: "Friends: Margie, Madeline & Janet. Taken at Bradock, PA, May 30, 1953"

Mom, standing, far left, and the rest of the ladies of the ensemble.

The men of the ensemble, enjoying a beverage!


 NOTES

 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (https://www.britannica.com : accessed 29 Nov 2019, 09:38:00), "Kolo."

2 J.I.M. Video, "Kolo “Croatia “ Croatian Independence 2019 San Pedro," uploaded 27 May 2019; YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQNUpTmz7I : accessed 29 Nov 2019).  



Until next time... 

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