February 12, 1931

Dear Cousin Katie Haag Rumping died about 3 o’clock this morning.[1. Just a few weeks earlier, Mary wrote about visiting her cousin in the hospital, indicating that she was quite ill.] The yr. 1916 was known as a “yr. without a summer”.[2. Here’s an interesting article from The New York Times about the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history – 1815 in Indonesia – which led to the “year without a summer” of 1816. Although Mary wrote “1916”, it appears she originally wrote “1816” and then wrote over it later. Click on the image below to enlarge.]

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