Decades Challenge TS4: The Roaring 20s

Ups and Downs and Never Still

Van met a lady named Rose Redd, and soon he was in full courtship and asking her to marry him. She agreed and even chose to have a small wedding since Van was still grieving for his mother. They moved out into a small cottage in town.

Economy was well and money was not an issue for Virgil and his family, so the house renovations moved forward fast.

The front door was moved to what had been so long ago the only bedroom. Now they had made it a hall from which to move around the house.

The downstairs bathroom was updated.

The two bedrooms downstairs had been made into one large room, the parlor. Virgil displayed the family portraits on a wall there.

There was plenty of room for entertaining, if they so chose to do. However, both Virgil and Elizabeth preferred more informal gatherings around the kitchen stove.

Upstairs, the landing was expanded to connect with the new wing.

They built a larger master bedroom.

Complete with modern fireplace and adjacent wardrobe area.

On occasion, they could hear the baby fuss and giggle in the nursery when alone, but otherwise, Harold was growing well.

The main room had been transformed into the family room with a full kitchen and dining, and a working corner for Elizabeth.

In fact, Virgil enjoyed his wife's company, so he chose to move a comfortable old chair to sit near her and read while she worked on the sewing machine that had belonged to his late mother.

After a long day at work in the farm, Virgil loved nothing more than to sit in the nursery and watch his wife take care of little Harold.

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A few months later, Elizabeth told her husband good news: She was with child again!

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That fall, Virgil also received news from his estranged sister, Vanessa. He had last seen her when he left to enlist in 1914, almost seven years before.

She looked well, and she had chosen to let her brother know her whereabouts, and that she was well. Malcolm Becker had not fulfilled his promise to marry her, and that was why she had not returned home. She was ashamed, but she had to think of her child, Remington, who had been born soon after she left in 1917. She was still with Malcolm, who did provide for his family, and they were now expecting a second child.
Vanessa had not learned of her mother passing until recently when she ran into Valerie in San Myshuno, and she regretted not having any means of communicating with her family before. That's why she was at Virgil's doorstep.
Virgil had mixed emotions about seeing his sister. He was glad she was fine, but he knew that her eloping had caused their brothers' reaction to run after her and then enlist against their mother's wishes. He did not blame Vanessa for Vivian's death, of course, but her actions precipitated a series of events that made his dear mother suffer more.
In the end, he agreed to stay in touch and let her and her children come for short future visits, as long as she did not bring Malcolm Becker too. Vanessa could ring him at Rowanwood Farm if she needed help, and he would introduce her to his own family at a better timing.

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The winter season was good for staying indoors. Virgil and his small family made the most out of the forced inactivity.

Harold loved the wireless almost as much as his late granny had done!

After a mild winter, spring arrived. Elizabeth and Virgil welcomed a baby girl into the family. She was named Hyacinth.
Having a new baby meant having piles of diapers to wash. And the one thing Elizabeth absolutely despised doing was the laundry. She hated having to kneel down for so long to get the clothes clean. If only they had one of those modern washing machines she saw in the magazines!

Fortunately, the weather was holding, and the clothes would dry quickly as soon as she'd hang them on the line. She was surprised, because the man on the wireless had been sure there would be sleet and rain until the following week. It seemed as if someone was holding a gigantic umbrella protecting the farmland.