Dad – who is this? Do you recognize her?

We were going through old black-and-white photos yet again.

Dad‘s voice softened, “Oh yes, that’s my Aunt Alice. She was so soft and cuddly. A good hugger.”

Alice Plante was one of my paternal grandma‘s younger sisters. Ten years younger, to be exact.

As I ticked off the names of the nine Plante siblings from our Ancestry family tree, Dad did the math. What an accomplishment for his grandma; she kept having babies for 15 years. I reminded him I’d done the same; three children for us over that time span, though – not quite the same! Great-grandma gave birth to nine children (two of whom, sadly, were premature twins in June of 1905; Anna survived just four hours and Albert 22 days).

Alice Annette Plante (pronounced to rhyme with the way I say “aunt,” not the Midwestern “ant”) was born June 17, 1913. She was the seventh child born to immigrants Achille and Jane (also known as Jennie).

This is the record of her birth:

Here’s a recent Google Street View, showing where she lived, on South Main Street in Auburn, Maine. This house was built in 1900.

When Alice was born, she had two older brothers and two older sisters. There were two additional sisters yet to be born. Her father, Achille, worked as a shoemaker in one of the local mills. She would later follow in his footsteps, as a shoe stitcher.

Who wouldn’t love to go to school at Edward Little High School? What a gorgeous building!

Edward Little was a local attorney and philanthropist. Born with the new nation, in 1773, the Massachusetts native eventually returned to his ancestors’ hometown of Auburn. In 1834, he opened Lewiston Fall Academy.

The photo above is from a 1906 postcard of the second version of the school, renamed for its benefactor, and built after the original burned.

Here’s a 1929 photo of Aunt Alice as part of the freshman class.

That was Alice’s final year in school. According to the 1930 Census, she held a job that year. A laborer in a shoe factory.

Dad and I have inspected that yearbook photo and think we may have identified Aunt Alice as in the second row, seven from the left. Upon further study, maybe she’s in the first row (not counting the fellow sitting cross-legged), six from the left.

Do you know why we picked out those faces? Because they’re both smiling. And as you’ve probably noticed, there were not too many smiles in photos back then.

Why don’t we just check with other family photos?

Because the only other one I’ve found was used for her obituary. Sadly, Aunt Alice did not live to complete her 25th year.

Dad only met Alice twice, that he can remember. Once was when he was about five, she visited his family in Utica, New York. A few years later, they visited her in Maine.

Alice died on Saturday, January 7, 1939. She’d been ill since Wednesday, with what was listed as an “intestinal obstruction.” She must have been in terrible pain, as an ambulance came. Aunt Alice survived the trip to the hospital, but died “a moment” later, according to a newspaper article about her passing.

Alice’s funeral was held the next Tuesday, January 10 at Saint Louis Catholic Church. She’s buried in French Cemetery, now called St. Peter’s Cemetery. Grandpa Vayo made the trip from Lowell, while Grandma stayed home with their young children.

Aunt Alice, taken so soon, left us with a lasting message:

A hug, a kindness, bestowed upon a child is never, ever wasted.

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