Hard Times

***This post was transferred from the Finding Horace blog.***

Originally published on Finding Horace 17 Jun. 2024.

My great great grandfather, Pietro Aloisio, was undoubtedly suffering from 'hard times' when this article appeared in an October 1932 issue of The Hartford Courant.

The Hartford Courant, 4 Oct. 1932, p. 7.

Records indicate Pietro immigrated to the United States in 1916, following his two sons, Cosimo and Mariano.  Pietro and his wife, Carmela, lived with Cosimo and his wife, also Carmela.  They are undoubtedly the 'relatives' mentioned in the above article, as 200 Oak Street is where Cosimo, Carmela, and Pietro were dwelling in the 1930 census.  Pietro's wife, Carmela, had died in 1928.

The article states that Pietro had been sick for some time before he tried to commit suicide.  I don't know what his malady was nor how long he had suffered from it.  It is possible his sickness was the reason he immigrated to the United States in the first place.  Maybe his son and daughter-in-law had encouraged him to do so with the intent of caring for him.  He did not indicate any type of employment on the 1920 or 1930 censuses, but he was also in his late 60s/70s by that time.  Perhaps the sickness was more of a mental ailment brought on by the death of his wife in 1928.

Whatever the cause of his sickness, after his suicide attempt, Pietro was admitted to Norwich Hospital for the infirm and mentally ill in Preston, Connecticut. His admission paperwork mentioned senility as a potential ailment.  He died just a few months later, 11 Jan. 1933, from a cerebral hemorrhage.   Hard times, indeed.