Capt O - that's actually a locket that she's wearing. Can you believe I'm lucky enough to have it with it's original chain - just as she wore it in the photo.
This is actually a perfect example of how we are able to learn more about our loved ones from seemingly insignificant sources - even long after they are gone.
When I was a child, my father had this locket in a drawer he'd set aside for the few possessions which he valued (his dogtags, his father's pocket watch, his Missal, and a watch my mother gave him). Once in awhile, he'd take it out & let me look at it. I knew only that it was "Grandma Howard's". and that she was the lady who's picture I often stared at in that huge ornate frame. I remember that I like to look at it because I thought she was very beautiful, especially her eyes. I didn't have the vocabulary then for what I saw in her eyes, but it was gentleness and also an "awakeness" - awareness & intelligence. I suppose that what I saw, was the "someone" she was inside.
Years passed & I forgot all about the locket. After Dad died, I found it among his treasured things and really looked at it. It's a round gold locket with a crescent shaped
moon with small clear stones and one single stone as a "star" on the front and on the back are initials "MJJ". My mother said "Open it, I think there's a picture of your father in
it." Sure enough, there were 2 small photos of my grandfather wearing a straw hat and my father as a baby. Two of the people she loved most in the world.
Later, I realized that this was the same locket she was wearing in the 1907 photograph, which was several years before she met & married my grandfather.
The locket has her maiden name initials - Marion Josephine Jordan, so she definitely had it before her marriage. Thinking about it further, it occurred to me that this locket would've been too costly for her to buy for herself. Coming to America in 1901, she worked as a ladies maid for a wealthy family in Cambridge Mass. My father used to talk about how this family grew to love her. He'd tell me snippets of stories about how they'd fuss over her & take care she didn't have to do extra work because she was so thin & pale. They'd take her to downtown Boston & buy her nice clothes & hats & treated her as if she was a member of their family. Though they weren't Catholic, they made sure she could get to Mass, even having the family coach take her to church in bad weather.
I didn't think much about these stories when I heard them - other than this must've been a very nice family and my grandmother was well liked. Only later did I come to realize that this was exceptionally good treatment for a "servant" of that time, but my grandmother herself was also quite a remarkable woman.
It was VERY observant of you Capt O, to notice how proudly she seems to be wearing that locket. I think you may just have provided me with an additional bit of information!
I came to the conclusion that the locket must have been a gift to her - probably from the family she worked for, but now - looking with fresh eyes (thanks to you!) - I can see she DOES appear to be wearing it with pride. Could it be that they gave it to her for her 27th birthday in 1907? and took her somewhere to have her picture taken??
I bet it was!!!
mary ann