Albert Boothe Curtiss (18??-1919)

So the Curtiss family that had just begun its collective life had to adapt to a hardscrabble existence without a father. They rapidly became "dirt poor" and must have had to leave their farm after trying to make a go of it with at least one hired man. I asked my mother if Lizzy had ever had any other relationships before she married for a second time and she said that she thought she had an affair with a hired man. That sounds plausible to me and makes her seem more human because she had a very strict moral code that she expected all her children to live by.

My mother was born on December 14, 1919. The death of my mother's father had profound effects on the immediate family and was carried down through the generations. I can imagaine how desperate it was to live during that first cold winter without a provider and with a newborn baby. Lizzy seemed lost for many years although she remarried later and had four more children, the first one being born in 1928 and the last one in 1933.

There are a few parallels in my mother's and my life: one of these is that we both grew up without a father. I have no idea how being fatherless affected our lives and relationships with others, but I'm sure it did.


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