One year after losing her mom, woman celebrates Mother’s Day again with memories and written records
Susie Carrell found out details about her mother's life she had never known
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Your support makes all the difference.If you’ve lost your mother, each Mother’s Day can feel like a painful reminder of your loss.
But for Susie Carrell, from Boise, Idaho, who lost her mother to Alzheimer's, this year’s Mother’s Day will not be one filled with sadness, but memories instead - thanks to Ancestry researchers and the memories they were able to uncover.*
Carrell recently sought out help from Ancestry to find photos and written records of her mother’s life - and she received much more than she’d ever imagined.
Carrell told The Independent: “I was provided and given some really special articles and pictures of my mom when she was in her early adult years and when she was later married to my father.”
She told us: "I was able to revisit stories and parts of my mom’s life," referring to the family tree ability Ancestry offers.
“I’ve heard her stories before but to see them and to read about them in the time that it occurred and how things were written in that time it made it feel so alive,” she said.
The records included “yearbook photos, a sorority photo, art club, and an article about her wedding with my father.”
According to Carrell, the wedding description and photos were especially amazing because of the detail and description - details only possible because of “how much people valued the written word back then.”
“It was amazing reading the article about her wedding with my father and the description of her wedding gown and what she wore when she went away on her honeymoon,” she said. “To read that detail and description, I could visualise my mom and my dad at that point.”
The newspaper article, published on July 9 1959 in the Star Herald, detailed the specifics of the wedding day between Margarette Ann Rucklos and Ralph Rucklos, Carrell's mother and father.
Carrell told us: “I had never read or seen the article and was made aware that she wore a gown of white silk floral Jusi material imported from the Philippines over silk organza.”
The Jusi material, traditionally used for Filipino clothing, was sent over from the Philippines by the wife of Carrell’s mother’s brother.
Another article Carrell received from Ancestry taught her a side of her mother she had never known.
“There was another article I had never known before and it was when they first moved to California. They were part of some rotary club,” Carrell told us. “My mother was dressed in a goofy outfit and playing the ukulele.
“To see her in that sweet little dress and playing an instrument - I never knew that about my mom. That was really cool,” Carrell said. “She was a lady and well-mannered and well-spoken and well-read. To see her barefooted playing the ukulele, like wow. I didn’t know that side of her."
These moments and memories are especially important to Carrell because the end of her mother’s life was so difficult.
“I was really close with my mom and she ended up having Alzheimer's disease and her communication and ability to talk to me faded so it was a lot of sadness,” Carrell said. “To celebrate and to see times that she was so vital and such an important part of life and living was so refreshing after many years of seeing her having every bit of her personal being taken away from her.”
For Carrell, this ability to keep the past alive through help from Ancestry was really amazing.
“I don’t know how they do it, but it is nice to go to one organisation that can access everything. I wouldn’t have had any idea where to start,” Carrell said.
And her mother’s legacy through photos and written articles has also inspired Carrell to continue searching with the help of Ancestry.
“It has inspired me to want to do more of this and connect more and find out more,” Carrell told us. “It is critical we cannot forget who we are and why we are the way we are.”
“These memories are a special gift,” Carrell said of the Ancestry records. “Seeing these photos for the first time keeps her story alive even after she is gone.”
*Disclosure: Carrell is the proud aunt of an Ancestry employee. Research for this story was provided by Ancestry professional genealogy researchers.
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