Very Respectfully, Allie E. Brady
Embossed Aluminum Spectacles Case (Possibly Edwardian Era) Private Collection of Beth Peel Leggieri This cherished artifact, a spectacles case, was found among the effects of my paternal grandmother, Viola (Brady) Peel, 1890-1986. It once was lined with velvet and belonged to her mother (my great-grandmother). Now its keeper, it rests safely behind a glassed-in bookcase. I am charged with attaching its significance to the vapor trail left by my paternal great-grandmother, the remarkable Sarah Elizabeth Thompson (Heifner) Brady (1856-1941). To her contemporary friends and family she was known as "Sallie" and later as "Dompey" to her grandchildren and beyond. The spectacles case spans time and place, connecting her to the generations who followed her. Surely well over 120 years old, it remains in excellent condition, still cleanly opening and snapping shut. Sallie would have opened and shut this case at least twice a day—in the morning when she began her bustl...
