Today I am sharing an image sent to me by Carol in Boynton Beach, Florida, whose great-grandmother survived the Chicago fire.
Carol reports that her great-grandmother completed this tapestry just a few months before the fire, and it was one of the things she chose to bring with her in the chaos of that night. As my last blog post said, the fire came with no warning, and very few people were able to secure a wagon to transport their belongings. For most people, the only things they were able to save had to be carried on their backs.
The people who survived the fire were able to salvage so little of their lives, that those few belongings carried immense emotional value for them. When I wrote Into the Whirlwind, I included a scene where Mollie decides to keep her stained, cinder-marked scarf as a beautiful/terrible reminder of what she lived through. Many accounts I read by the fire’s survivors mentioned how they treasured those few items they could salvage.
Carol reports that this tapestry has been passed down through the generations….a memento of that amazing, terrible night. Many thanks to Carol for sending it along!