6 Comments

My goodness, what a tragic story of Betsey's parents. I want to reach back through time and guide them home. I'm glad she lived a long life and is memorialized in Hawthorne's story.

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Me too! My hope is that, throughout her life, she looked back on the aftermath of her family’s tragedy and the horror was maybe tempered by the affection and care she received from Richard, Nathaniel and the Manning-Hawthorne family. I’ve no concrete evidence to support that other than that she spoke of them in several interviews and they were included in her obituary.

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Amazing! I cannot imagine the strength it would've taken to pile the wood high, tell your children to stay put, and go out into the storm. How tragic for the children. It reminds me of Jim Reeves "The Blizzard."

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The story of the children orphaned in the blizzard haunts me. Oh my, I knew none of this and found it captivating.

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Thanks. I’ve come across a remarkable number of tragic blizzard stories, and this one just hid hard for me, too. Having grown up in MN, I well remember three-day blizzards, and my parent’s warnings about what could happen if we were caught out.

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I've experienced my share of blizzards growing up in Minnesota, too, and can't imagine the horror of it all. I"ve been snowed in when the drifts covered the door opening and that was scary enough. Both husband and wife leaving three orphans is unfathomable.

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