Good afternoon, Twitter.

I just got off the phone from wishing MamaMagick a happy Mother's Day, and now I want to tell you about a woman I wish I remembered, who died when I was two: my maternal great-Grandma Alice.

Alice was the oldest of 10-12 (Mom couldn't remember). Her father was in construction, and while her family lived in rural Quebec, he often worked in the city. He worked on the installation of the cross on Mount Royal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Royal_Cross

A year later he was working on the construction of Jacques Cartier Bridge when he fell and died. With so many kids at home his wife couldn't come to identify the body when it was recovered.

So Alice, then about 15, went to Montreal alone to do it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier_Bridge

This was in 1925, maybe early 1926. There was no Volstead act in Quebec, but the spirit of the Roaring 20s was going strong nonetheless. Quebec and Ontario, just across the water from states like New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, were huge exporters of booze.

So anyway, Alice gets to the city, IDs the corpse, and decides, "You know what? This is way better than babysitting. I'm saying." And she did.

She started working as a waitress and cook in clubs, bars, and restaurants and lived the flapper life.

Apparently, she was the wild child of the family, because at some point she got a huge tattoo on her chest. No one is really sure what this mystery tattoo was, as it wasn't something she showed off, but it was a heart with something written on it.

My mom and uncle were SO EMBARRASSED because grandma had a tattoo! Le shock!

She continued to work in bars and clubs for the rest of her life. The only other things I know about her are that she was a hard drinking chain smoker who swore like a sailor.

There's a grand total of one picture of us together when I was about a year old or less, but honestly I wish I had been able to get to know her. I am clearly waaaay more like my mom's side of the family than my dad's.

This thread brought to you by DRU FAUST AND THE DEVIL'S DUE, out now, which my mom started reading this morning and said made her think of Grandma Alice. Totally not my intention, but a happy result nonetheless. https://knotmagickknitter.com/shop