1. "Emma's fall"
Posted by stefani on May-25th-03 at 12:57 AM

After rereading that gosh-awful article for the 100th time today, and trying to count the number of errors, I came across a curious thing.

The writer mentions (incorrectly) Emma's fall. She places that fall a week after Lizzie's death, but I have always thought, as Susan corrected in her entry, that Emma fell the day of Lizzie's death.

But where do we get this from? It isn't in Rebello. Her death certificate says: Cause of Death: nephritis for 2 years contributing cause, senility, duration unknown.

Is this "fact" from a newspaper or a work of fiction? Please enlighten me!

The Lizzie Borden Sourcebook, pg. 342, Newspaper Unknown:
"EMMA BORDEN IN FAMILY PLOT"  **
..."Miss Emma L. Borden had been able to transact her own business affairs within three weeks before her death and was not seriously ill at the time of her sister's death, according to a relative.  The day before her sister died, however, she fell in her home in Newmarket, N.H., and this combined with the shock of her sister's death, no doubt hastened her end, relatives said."

--** Sounds like a double entendre

--Previous to this account in Sourcebook, pg. 341:
"EMMA BORDEN FOLLOWS SISTER"

..."Emma was too ill to have gone to her sister's funeral, if she had wished to."

..."Her advanced age (she was 76 years old last March) told against her when her health became impaired by reason of kidney trouble.  Dr. George H. Towle, who had attended her on several occasions when she was ill, was called nearly two weeks ago."...

--Kent, David. Lizzie Borden Sourcebook. Boston: Brandon Publishing, 1992


(Message last edited May-25th-03  6:17 AM.)

Since the Sourcebook is Kent, I figured to look in Kent's Forty Whacks.
Page 219:
"Emma was not present for Lizzie's funeral. The day Lizzie died, Emma fell in her New Hampshire home and suffered a broken hip. She died ten days later."--Kent, David. Forty Whacks: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden. Emmaus, PA: Yankee Books, 1992.

--I suppose this is redundant, yet it still has Emma falling on a differring day.

(Message last edited May-25th-03  6:15 AM.)

Radin, Edward. Lizzie Borden: The Untold Story. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1961, pg. 245, hardback:

"The day before Lizzie died, Emma fell in a house in Newmarket, New Hampshire, where she had been living with a paid companion, and suffered severe injuries. These injuries, plus the shock of learning about her sister's death, are said to have hastened her decline, and ten days after Lizzie's death, Emma also died."

--He doesn't give a source.

I can't think of anyone prior to Radin, 1961, except Samuels or Phillips, or newspapers.
It's not in de Mille, 1968.
BUT, Radin did have access to the "Hip-bath Collection" of Jennings Trial evidence.  There were News items in that collection, but Jennings died before Emma, 1923.  Maybe the stuff we can't run down to ground is all residing in Phillips History of Fall River?
That's Bill's forte.

That's interesting that it says that Emma: "had been able transact her own business affairs within three weeks before her death and was not seriously ill at the time of her sister's death, according to a relative."

If senility was present, as per the death certificate, her conducting business affairs is rather odd. Her abilities would imply knowledge on their part of her condition either through visits to her or by information received from others. Except for Spiering (of all people) we know little if anything of Emma's last days.

Emma's will was signed in 1920, some 7 years prior to her death. There was a revision (Codicil) made in 1922. I mention that only to indicate that there does not appear to be any attempt at influencing her by the relatives in her senility as to the distributions she made in her will.

Spiering gives the most colorful story about Emma's death.  He turned her senility into being a fear of "them" coming after her - "them" being the people who killed her parents.  Okay, "step"mother and father. 

If she had kidney failure, once it got to a certain stage she could have went quite quickly.  The senility could have meant anything from forgetfulness on occasion to foaming at the mouth.  I wish we had more details, but I guess they're just lost forever. 

Spiering has it listed that Emma died 8 days after Lizzie, and its listed in Lincoln also, for what its worth, as 10 days after.  I would imagine it would have been something easy to check on with Emma's docter at the time, years ago if she had been treated for a broken hip or not, I wonder if any of the author's did?  Or, was there some sort of obit that someone had read off of? 

I am thinking that this tumble might be hogwash and yet another colorful addition to the legend. For her to fall on the day of Lizzie's death makes you think "wow, they were connected in spirit and it was Lizzie's death that triggered it or maybe Lizzie herself."

Don't you think the death certificate would mention the hip fracture as a part of the cause of death? It mentions senility as a secondary cause.

I am really beginning to doubt that Miss Emma took her fabled spill.

It looks like we may be on to something.  I wonder if there is any way we can check into this now?  Would Michael Martins have any info on this?  I've also seen it written that Emma fell the night before Lizzie died.  Either way, a big coincedence. 

Har, I'm still confused as to What Relative??

The way they say today, the broken hip caused the fall, not the other way around. Yes, it seemed simultaneous. I knew of a case where the elderly person fell, couldn't get up. The diagnosis was a broken hip.

I can assure you that a senile person can attend to business, as long it is part of their past practice. This does not rule out mistakes. But if something new comes about, beware!
...
There are gradations to senility. This could mean she forgot to take her medicine, or a double dose.

(Message last edited May-27th-03  12:23 PM.)

Thank you Dr. Rays.

Senile can also mean she couldn't write her name. I'll stick with what I said.

I heard from somebody that when an elderly person suffers from a broken hip, they often never walk out of the hospital. Laying is bed is not too healthful.

Yup, older folks gotta be careful about breaking a hip.  There's a good many of them that had that as a major contributing cause to their death.  The inactivity needed to recuperate can lead to atrophy of the muscles in general and even pneumonia.  I agree with Stefani.  If she did break her hip so soon before her death, I would think that would be listed under causes on the certificate.  At least tied with the senility if nothing else.  Could be it never happened. 

Aha!  Here's an explanation for why I'm foaming at the mouth (as somebody says on another thread).  It has nothing to do with magic mushrooms; it's simple senility.  (Actually, the only time I foam at the mouth is when I brush my teeth.)

  Good one, Edisto.  Am I totally off on this or is most(not all) senility caused by things like hardening of the arteries?  I don't know if there would have been medication to treat that in Emma's day.

The reason I just brought this up was because earlier today I was dealing with a girlfriend's nextdoor neightbor who has hardening of the arteries, and is being treated for it, but, she gets forgetful and I've heard it has progressively gotten worse.  The neighbor, Rose, thought we were working on my friend, Angela's, car.  We were in the garage, I was helping with stenciling on a dresser.  And Rose kept on mentioning a yellow dog with black eyes that was by us, watch out, he looked mean; there was no dog.  I did go over and chat with Rose for a bit and admired her and her husband's garden, it is quite lovely and I got a beautiful bouquet of early summer flowers for my troubles.  She did start calling me Melly or Emily shortly after I had introduced myself.

Sorry for all that, but, I kind of picture Emma being like that, very sweet, but, forgetful in her old age.  Does anyone else think that this may have been a contibuting factor to Emma's senility?  Hardening of the arteries? 

Since Emma lived longer than anyone in her immediate family, and the only member living longer was her grandfather, Abraham, we can't compare history's of (early) senility in the Borden's as a gene trait, which might tend to confirm Emma as suffering from it.
I think it is possibly a tendency within a family to suffer from hardening of the arteries, or a form of senility.
Emma died, aged 76.
Lizzie died aged 67
Andrew aged 70
Sarah Borden, 39
Phoebe Borden died at age 64
And Abraham at age 84.

So the only person we can compare a family medical history with is Abraham.
If we had info on HIM, we might get somewhere.

Thanks, Kat.  The info I had read on that, if I recall it all correctly, was that if we live long enough it is just something that happens naturally.  But, Emma wasn't in her 90s or 100s.  The woman, Rose, is in her late 70s.  I guess some people are more prone to it? 

I think families are prone.  And it might have several contributing factors, like diet etc.
My neighbor is 87 and really not a hint of it.  Her body will give out before her mind or memory.
My other neighbor lived to be 86 and not a hint of mental confusion.

Emma's family members didn't get to be old enough to compare.  There might be early onset or not.  I would think, from my experience, if a person was prone then about 70 might be the time to look at early onset.  I'm not a doctor or a nurse.  I've had 2 family members that suffered from memory problems, one our mother and one her uncle.  HE was said to have Alchzeimers (sp?)  which does run in families, but after he died they found it wasn't so.  So he probably had (early) senility after all.

I remember the sanity survey and the info the town gave on the Morse's and the Borden's.  Those descriptions might lead one to think there might have been a tendency in both families, maybe Morse more, tho.  I'd have to look up that survey.
Also there were 2 children within the family who died of brain-related illness or disabilty, Alice and George.