Moving into the 1930s Valente Marini Perata Funeral Home journals,
a new information category appears on the page:
Occupation. Men have
occupations, none of which are in the professional class as we know it. And, in their late 50s and older, they shift
to “retired.” After entering hundreds
of female deaths, the only occupation so far has been h.w. for housewife. No women get to be retired.
With this woman, Maria Holdner, she not only is not a
housewife; she is a milker. Imagine
that. And where would she be doing the
milking in San Francisco in1936? The
other interesting fact about this entry is the cost of the funeral. Funerals, on average, $250 to $325. This one is $418; far above the norm. How does a milker who is single ever save
enough money to pay that amount.
Then we have the cause of death: “Specimen to
pathologist.” Not a good sign. I don’t think the pathologist would be
involved if the cow had something to do with her death.
The only clue is who paid for the funeral: William Crosby of Burlingame (of Crosby-N.
Gray & Co Funeral Home).
You are invited to submit possible scenarios for this conundrum.
By
Jean Ann Carroll
1 comment:
Yep. I got it. You are sneaky! You should have saved this for April 1st, Jean Ann. I'll be interested to see comments.
Maggie
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