In my mother’s diary for September 26, 1931 - “a baby girl born @ 3:45 a.m. weight eight pounds.
Helen Cynthia was her name. She was the eighth child of Fannie and everett Bradford. She had 6 older brothers and a sister two years older.
My family lived in Locke Mills, Maine. My father, a disabled WW I vet, and my mother had a farm and raised fruits and vegetables to sell. They also made a fair quantity of maple syrup in the spring to supplement their meager income.
In 1933 they moved to Turner, Maine, to a larger house and nearer town. This was the year that I was born. The move was accomplished while my mother was in the hospital for my birth.
In 1936 a house with nine rooms was purchased in Hebron, Maine and that is where Helen went to a one-room schoolhouse. Needless to say there were plenty of Bradfords in school.
We had a happy childhood, in a small town, surrounded by woods and fields, which we spent many hours exploring. There was a boys prep school in town so we had access to a skating rink and also spent my time skiing and sledding.
We were poor but we didn’t think so. We had ample food and clothing (mostly hand-me-downs). I remember that one time there were some large black bloomers which we decided to weat to school. So the other children made fun of us saying “They wear black bloomers and they call their father Pa!” We still do.
Summers were sometimes spent at my uncle Charlie’s farm. He was thirteen years older than my mother so we thought of my aunt and uncle more like grandparents. They had a big influence on our lives.
Helen was very athletic and did well in any sport that she played. She was very protective of me and several times intimidated the local boys if she thought they were teasing me.
We always shared birthdays as she was two years and a day older that I was. We played many games, read and spent many happy hours skiing, sledding and skating, in the long winter months.
I can’t begin to tell all of our adventures growing up but Helen was a big part of my life. She was generous, thoughtful, and a great birding, hiking and berrying companion.
I always said that anyone lucky enough to be her neighbor was truly blessed. The poem that she recited at her eighth grade graduation really fits so well. “Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to my man” by Sam Walter Foss.
My life will never be the same without my dear sister Helen.
Carolyn