Loretta Marous July 12, 1926 – November 5, 1928
In 2009, my cousin Barbara Koenig Carrigg was forced to break up her mother’s home due to my Aunt Arlene moving to a nursing home. It’s something many of us are faced with during our lifetime. During the liquidation process, this framed photo was found among Arlene’s belongings.
At first, no one knew who this little girl was and the image was almost sold along with the other of Arlene’s disposable items. Finally, someone in the family realized before the photo was sent to be auctioned off that this little forgotten girl was Loretta Marous.
Little Loretta was the fifth child of my grandparent’s, Albert and Lillian Marous. She was my father’s sister. She died at two years and three months old of an intestinal blockage. I managed to find her death certificate online and saw that the cause of death was listed as intussusception which is essentially the telescoping of the intestine. It’s a very painful condition and unfortunately was not curable in the early 20th century. Loretta died a dreadful and painful death. My Aunt Dorothy spoke of her memories of how Loretta would scream in agony on the floor in the months before her death.
I heard about this photo (it’s actually looks like a pastel drawing) at my Uncle Len’s funeral in January of 2010 and asked to borrow it so that I could scan it to make copies. The photo was quite fragile so great care was taken to separate the photo from the original frame for the scanning process.
