On the far right is my great grandmother, Julia Pressl, at about fifteen years old. That dates this picture to 1905 which fits in with the ages of her three half sisters who are also pictured. (The other girl, who is dead center, is an unnamed friend.) Julia is happy here - it's one of the happiest pictures I've seen of her as a young woman - and she seems delighted with her sisters which is a little surprising as according to family stories there was much talk of the fact that Julia was illegitimate whereas Ernestine, Marie and Carol were born in wedlock. There was some friction between the sisters as they got older over this issue. By 1905 all of them might have been fatherless however because sometime between the 1900 census and 1910, their mother became a widow. Her husband Rudolph was head of household in 1900 but apparently dead ten years later. I'm still trying to find his grave in New York City just so I can fill in that blank in the family history.
But back to Julia. She would marry in 1910, have her first of eight children in 1912, and be widowed herself with all those children in her early forties. It was not an easy life although I'm sure there were happy times. But the woman she became was much harder than the girl pictured here. This Julia is ready for anything and excited and happy. The future is bright for her. I have no idea what her dreams were however - what she hoped for herself. The conventional answer is to be a wife and mother because that is what most women became but did she want that? Did she dream about it?
I don't know - I honestly have no idea. The saddest thing is that I don't think anyone ever asked her; I don't think it even occurred to anyone to ask her.
On one level, writing about a character based on Julia is easy because I do know a lot about her life. But on another it is nearly impossible, because her heart is a mystery to me and forever will remain that way. She loved seashells, I remember that. Perhaps she dreamed of the sea, perhaps, so many things.....
