Carrie

My grandmother insisted that her father’s people were Scottish, not Irish; Protestant not (God forbid) Catholic. Was it MacBride or McBride? It appears that her grandfather came from Ireland, her grandmother from Scotland. They lived in Brooklyn. He was a carpenter, she a housekeeper.

Their youngest son, Edwin, my grandmother’s father, moved north when he was young, was apparently raised by an Episcopal priest, and changed his name to MacBride. He married Carrie Thayer in  1891. In 1896, he died of typhoid fever, aged twenty-eight.

My grandmother said her mother was a saint, raising her and her brother alone; said she was very clever and lovely and lady-like.

I found a photograph of Carrie when she was a girl, with long curly tresses, looking ever so confident, delightfully full of herself.