Hazel Vera Holbrook Remembered

I don't usually re-post cards, but I'm doing it this time, because I have new information and because this simple card was the most heartbreaking one I have ever encountered.

For a long time, this card was one of the most amusing ones I had ever encountered because of the message:

Dear Brother -  Wishing you a Happy Birthday and many more to come. Your sister (Hazel Vera)

(Wish I could see you just one minute. Maybe I wouldn't blister you.)

On a lark, I decided to search the name of Rexford E. Holbrook. I don't do this very often, because before you know it you're researching other people's genealogy and there's no end.  Interestingly enough, I found Hazel Vera before I found Rexford. Hazel was born in June, 1901, so she was 14 when she sent this card to her 7 year-old brother who was visiting a relative in a nearby town.  But what's so very tragic is that Hazel Vera died on September 28, 1915, only a month after writing this.

Rexford lived longer. I don't know when he died, but he did get married. He and Hazel are both buried in the North Volney Cemetery in Oswego County, New York. Here's the information posted on rootsweb:

HOLBROOK, HAZEL V.   lot 34
1901   1915
Born:  June 3, 1901  Palermo, NY
Died:  September 28, 1915
Father:  Ephraim L. Holbrook
Mother:  Bertha Curtis
(Vital Records Fulton)

The mystery was solved when Chris Overstreet responded with this information:

I found that Hazel had just taken the Regents (New York's high school entrance exam) about a week before this postcard; then I found this:

Oswego Daily Times, Monday Evening, October 4, 1915

Hazel, 14 years old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ephraim Holbrook, died (last) Tuesday at two p.m. at Lee Memorial Hospital, Fulton, where she was operated upon the night previous for appendicitis. She had been ill about a week. A consultation of doctors was held Monday and she was taken to the hospital and operated upon. Besides her parents, she leaves a sister, Mrs. Herman Hollenbeck of Clifford, and a little brother Rexford.

Hazel was a member of the North Volney Sunday school and was baptised at the church here by Rev. Mr. Williams a year and one day previous to her death. She was also an attendant of the North Volney school.

The funeral services were held at the family home in Palermo Friday, October 1, at 2 p.m., Rev. Mr. Williams of Mt. Pleasant officiating. Burial was made in North Volney cemetery. Much sympathy is felt and expressed especially for Mrs. Holbrook who has lost her mother, her sister, and now this daughter, all in about six months.

For more old photos and memories be sure to check in with Sepia Saturday.