Baby The Rain Must Fall, and Other Things

Today was the first day of Spring and it rained non-stop. We also had wind like crazy! Not being one to like venturing out in storms, I hung out at home today just waiting for a break in the rain to run out for cat food. It never happened (the break in the rain, that is, but the cats did get food). So, while waiting, I began wondering where else I could look to find anything on Lola. I decided to visit Rootsweb and do a search of the California Death Index. I have not been able to find a death certificate for Lola, nor could I find her in the Social Security Death Index. This may very well have to do with the fact that she could have remarried and died under a different name.

I had an idea to search the California Death Index and this time not provide so much information. This time my search was based only on last name, gender, year of birth and birth state (Robinson, female, 1894, Illinois). The search results came back with nine women. As I looked at the results, one made me gasp! Turns out a Marie Robinson was born in Illinois on October 14, 1894. All records I can find indicate that Lola was born in Illinois in October of 1894. Marie Robinson's mother's maiden name was Beck. Lola's mother was Effie Beck. Marie Robinson died in Placer County California in 1960 (the index does not give a city) and it appears that Marie did not have a social security card.

Now, it may seem like I'm grasping at straws here, and trust me, I've done it before more than once. I have had other things arise that seemed like a possibility and when I got to view the death certificate, it wasn't her, and this may be another one of those cases, but, I just can't let it go. I can't get past the fact that for the first time, I found someone that had the birth month and birth year of Lola, plus a mother named Beck. Not to mention her place (state) of her birth. I have to get the death certificate. I also did a little research on the Rootsweb message boards for Placer County and learned that there was a Sanitarium in the County that at some point housed mental patients. I have filled out the application for death certificate and will put that in the mail tomorrow. My fingers are crossed.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. My younger sister and I went to visit her. Her helper and friend, Galeen, organized a very nice birthday lunch for my mom. She got lots of nice cards and gifts. One of her friends loaned her a wheelchair as she is having trouble getting around since falling last weekend. My mom shared her birthday celebration with another friend of hers, Evy, who actually turned 90 today. It was a very nice day. My mom was so very happy that we were there and my sister and I both had different telling us that she looked so happy (she hasn't looked way for a long time). Need to seriously make steps to move her closer to us.