52 ANCESTORS 52 WEEKS -

GONE TOO SOON

When someone is gone too soon, many people are affected.

My mother, Ruth Isabel Moore Mathews, died at the age of 37 in 1956.  She had breast cancer at a time when there was little known about the disease and little to be done for it.

Ruth’s brother, John N. Moore, lost his only sibling.  He joined the Merchant Marines right out of school during WW11.  When he left the service he ended up living in Chicago while the rest of his family was in Brooklyn, New York.  So he wasn’t around for his sister’s wedding and births of her 4 children.  He did come to visit Ruth after her 4th child was born.  He told me he was sorry he missed being with his sister as they turn into adults.

Ruth’s mother, Isabel Tierney Moore, lost her only daughter.  As a young child Isabel lost her own mother, Margaret Delaney Tierney at the age of 41 and knew the heartache Ruth’s children would go through.

Ruth’s father, John N. Moore Sr., lost his only daughter.  She was always going places with her father, they loved to go for rides in his car from Brooklyn out to Long Island, mainly to Ronkonkoma Lake.

They also went to Mitchell Field when Charles Lindbergh flew to France.

Ruth’s husband, James R. Mathews lost his young wife.  James met Ruth on Wall Street where they both worked.  He as a “runner” taking messages from one brokerage house to another and she as a telephone operator.  They set up the family first in Jamaica, Queens, then Bellerose , Levittown and Hicksville.  Having two daughters first then 7 years later 2 sons, they needed more and more room.

They were very happy together with many friends and family around all the time.

Ruth had several friends from the old neighborhood in Brooklyn who lived out on Long Island.  They were more than friends they became family. So even though she had few cousins and only one brother she ended up with a large “family”.  They were all devastated when she died so young.

My sister and brothers and I had a very hard time adjusting to not having Mom around anymore.  The boys were only 2 and 4 years old.  They needed constant care, so they were sent to live with relatives for awhile.  Soon they came home and went to nursery school and elementary school with us sisters caring for them after school.  Dad did a wonderful job and kept us all together. We felt loved all the time, but Mom was gone to soon.