October 16: Jenny Part I

She was my grandfather's grandmother. She died the year he was born and no one in my family who was alive while I was alive ever met her. Her name was Jenny Dawes and her daughter-in-law, my great-grandmother, Anna, thought she was a witch.

She probably was. I have told this story before. She cursed Anna to a thousand deaths, whispering it in her ear as she herself was dying of kidney failure. Anna took the curse seriously and died miserably of cancer after cancer.

The house where Jenny died was only blocks from where I lived and I rushed over when I read that in the 1920 census, thrilled to see.

It is the only empty lot on the street of intact original homes