My West End Story conclusion...

Ruth Carlson Heffernan, circa 1920's

Last month I wrote a part one segment of what I called a "West End Story" in my monthly post on Zenith City Online. This month I wrote the conclusion to the story, titled, "A West End Story, Part 2: Daughters of a star-crossed couple persevere after being orphaned."

Anna & Charles Carlson with my mother
and three of her five sisters circa 1910

I received so many calls, private notes and online comments asking me to write the rest of the story that I decided to write the conclusion of this remarkable saga of young girls orphaned by the untimely deaths of both parents in in the early twentieth century. The oldest of these six daughters of Charles and Anna Carlson was my mother, Ruth Carlson Heffernan, and this story is a very personal tale of her early life.

If you'd like to read the conclusion to this story that took place in the late 19th century and early twentieth century, you can link HERE to my post in Zenith City Online. (There's a link embedded in that story to part 1, if you haven't read the first part of the story.) I think you'll find the tale of my Swedish immigrant grandparents and the struggles of my mother and her sisters reflecting the era and likely paralleling so many stories of that period of time.