Tragedy Strikes Laurel Glen

The Dakin family like the rest of the farming community continued in the seasonal and social rhythms of the Santa Cruz mountains: church, school, family gatherings, pruning, and harvest. The children grew, Ruth remained close to her church and community friends. Henry didn't go to church much, though he was devoted to Bible reading and spiritual practice as well as gregarious in many other respects. Ruth occasionally had trouble with her health, but the family didn't report anything life threatening. It seemed that Henry was making good on his promise to make her well when his efforts turned counter to his purpose.

The model "T" Ford is decorated for celebration

Ruth may have had her share of illness, but that had not dampened the force of her will, perhaps her stubborness/determination (depending on whether you agreed with her) may have been what gave her the degree of health she enjoyed. Play practice was being held at church. She had a cold and Henry was determined that she not go and perhaps make the cold worse, so he forbid her from using the car for the 1-2 mile journey. Determined to go, Ruth walked in cold mountain air to the rehearsal.

Ruth, Ruthalee and Alice standing next to the family's model "T" Ford

Ruth's cold became worse and developed into pneumonia. Drummond, Ruth's younger brother still lived at home in Sunol. He wrote, "When Ruth became ill with pneumonia for the third time, and I was amazed that Mother was not making superhuman efforts to arrange for us kids, so she could go to Henry's and take care of her, she said, "No, Drum, I can not help her now. She iwll not live through this. It is more important to consider now what to do for her children. She will know."

Many years later Ruthalee visited Laurel Glen when a chance meeting her together with the Westons who had come to own the property. She later wrote of the walk she took through the house and the memories each room held for her. "As we moved across the dining room toward the veranda that extends along the West wall of the house, we came to the only remaining downstairs bedroom. It had not changed. For me that little room holds two of the most vivid memories of life in this house: (the first was seeing her sister Alice a few hours after she had been born). And then there was the night almost exactly four years later that a nurse brought my sister and me to stand in this same doorway for our last glimpse of our mother. The nurse knew Mama was dying, but she just said how good Mama was about taking the medicine she was being given. She had pneumonia and there was no penecilin yet. The medicine was useless."

Ruth Alegra Chamberlain Dakin died in May, 1927.