Skip to main content

Featured

Next Steps in Researching Jane Darragh's Diagnosis

Image by rawpixel, edited by author. Last week I shared the beginnings of my research into Maria Jane Darragh's mental illness diagnosis of "acute mania." (If you haven't read that post, catch up here .)  Here's what I've been working on since then. Research Planning Given what I already know about Jane, I already have a good set of questions that I hope to answer about her acute mania diagnosis.   Her Life in St. Catharines, Ontario What would life have been like for Jane in St. Catharines? What was St. Catharines like at the time, it's population, trade, social and religious environment? What was Jane's married life like? What was it like raising her children in that time? Acute mania What was the medical understanding of acute mania in the late 19th century? What were the symptoms, how was it diagnosed, how was it treated at that time? How does one die from acute mania? Could Jane have been misdiagnosed? What other conditions could have...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

FAVORITE PHOTO

by Nancy Gilbride Casey


This favorite photo of many I have taken over the years comes with a special anecdote.

When our daughter Anne (then known as Annie), was preschool age, she dedicated great parts of each day drawing with markers, painting with watercolors, coloring in books. In summer, she drew with chalk on the sidewalk. 

Every gift-giving occasion was another opportunity to buy a new box of crayons or paints, and reams of paper, tablets large and small, and sheaves of manila and construction paper to feed her never-ending appetite to draw.

Her artwork covered our refrigerator, was sent on to grandparents, and hung on our office bulletin boards. 

Art was already ingrained into her little personality.

Each day Annie created literally a dozen or more creations, in a free flow of imagination, wild, exotic, and uniquely from her sometimes funny and observant perspective.

On the occasion of this photo, I captured her one morning, sitting at her little art easel, paintbrush in hand, engrossed in one of that day's many creations.

"Are you going to be an artist when you grow up, Annie?" I asked.

Without taking her eyes off her artwork, and without skipping a beat, she replied,

"But Mommy...I already AM an artist!"

To this day, I can't argue with that.

 

Until next time...
 
This post was inspired by Amy Johnson Crowe's 52 Ancestor in 52 Weeks Challenge. 

Subscribe to "Leaves on the Tree," to receive more family history stories, right in your email box. Click the green Subscribe link above.

 

 

 

 

 


 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment