The following appeared in The Quincy Patriot Ledger, July 3, 1945, mere weeks after VE Day, and weeks before VJ Day. It’s an article that describes a woman my own mother (mentioned at the end) knew well, but who as a young teenager had sewn gifts for Union troops fighting under President Lincoln.

I do this work for many reasons, but near the top of the list, I do it because I want to show present and coming generations that the people of the past, recorded as grainy black and white or sepia photos, or as primitive oil portraits, or without images altogether, were as real as you and I.

Reading this, several times over, and imagining myself at her party, listening to her words and seeing her good cheer, I am reminded of Masaccio’s fresco The Holy Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. At the base, below the image of Christ, there is a skeleton, and above it the words: “Io fu’ già quel che voi sete, e quel ch’i’ son voi anco sarete” or “I once was what you are [now], and what I am [now] you will also be.”

Quincy Woman, 95, Has Done Her Share During Four Wars

Mrs. Mary Morrison, Great-Aunt of Former Mayor, Made Comfort Bags For Civil War Soldiers; Still Sews For Red Cross

Seated in her favorite rocking chair, Mrs. Mary L. Morrison, of 84 Bigelow street, who celebrated her 95th birthday over the weekend, looked back on almost a century of “good moderate living” as she told her family how she helped in each of the last four wars, what the town of Quincy was like in 1870, and all about the old Rodgers homestead in Marshfield Hills. Mrs. Morrison is the great-aunt of Clarence R. Burgin, president of the Quincy Savings bank, and Lt. Thomas S. Burgin, USN, four-times Mayor of Quincy.

Continue reading →