brother & sister

Cheraw, South Carolina
The back of this photo is labeled Rutha and Westbrook. Rutha Wait Finlayson Dyal passed away in June of 1996. She was the older sibling of Burruss & Jennie Wait Finlayson. Rutha had married Ernest Cooke Dyle of McRae, GA. Earnest was murdered back in 1927. Rutha never remarried after the tragedy. It's another story I'll share in a future post. Aunt Rutha Dyal, like most of her siblings (whose mother was a music/piano teacher) was a singer too. I have some more information about aunt Rutha that I'll share later down the road. I've got to dig it up first.


Both of these photos show Westbrook in braces. The only time Dad wasn't in braces was when he was in bed. Can you imagine going through your entire life with cold steel strapped on was when he was bathing or in bed.  I remember the first time I realized Dad's braces as being a handicap was when our vacationing family were swerving high in the curvy roads of the Smoky Mountains. I don't know how old I was (I was little - mid sixties?), but I remember looking out the window and peering down into infinity - then looking over the seat to watch dad have to manually adjust his braces every time he switched foot from accelerator to brake. I remember looking out the window and looking back as he would adjust for the curves - and I screamed like a little girl.