Tragic Photo Restored

Unique Picture

Some background is needed to understand the photo restoration at the bottom of this post.

My paternal grandparents, Barbara and Michael, married on November 27, 1905 at the Saint Stanislaus Church in Minersville, Pennsylvania. Michael was then 24 and Barbara was 18. Between 1906 and 1915 they had 5 children.

Four of Barbara and Michael's children. My Dad is on the left.

Michael spent many years working as a coal miner, although he eventually did other work in his later years.

Minersville scene photographed by my Dad in 1947.

Respiratory problems, no doubt related to years of breathing coal dust, eventually caused Michael's death in February, 1927. He was only 46 then. He left behind his wife, Barbara, suddenly a 40-year old widow with 4 teenage children to raise. I've been told Barbara was so overcome with grief she tore up all pictures of herself and Michael. I'm aware of only one surviving picture with the two of them alone together. This picture was torn almost completely in half. Someone taped the back together and saved it. I repaired the tear in the restoration below, but the unfortunate stain and scratches on Barbara's face could not be fixed.

Look at the tear crossing the middle of the original damaged photo. It is the physical embodiment of my grandmother's grief still remaining so many years after her death. (The image below should change back and forth between the original and the restored. If it does not, please click on the image itself, otherwise you will not see the restoration. I don't understand why the image is sometimes properly animated and other times not.)

Barbara and Michael in 1926. (Click for full size)