I’m turning time backward a bit from yesterday’s post. Here is Donna Wright at seven months and at one year. Both photos appear to have been taken on the McClain farm in Tallman.

The above photo shows Donna at roughly seven months old (May 12, 1935), held by her grandmother Addie McClain. A photo of Donna taken a few months earlier, where she is held by her great grandmother Sarah Hammell, is in this previous blog post.

Donna was a preemie, weighing only 3 pounds 14 ounces at birth. Thankfully she was healthy in spite of her small size. The survival of newborns that size today is close to 100% with the help of medical technology, but that wasn’t necessarily the case in 1934. There weren’t any NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) in 1934—at least not in towns the size of Albany. Interestingly enough, the average hospital stay of a preemie of Donna’s general size today is 22 days. Mother Florence and baby Donna were sent home from Albany General Hospital after just nine days in 1934.

The photo above shows Donna at one year, in early October 1935. She is hanging onto her grandfather Arthur McClain, whose birthday was one day after hers (not that she was necessarily aware of that at the time ;–).