Elusive Memories of Iola, Part 2

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published November 22, 2013 and can be found here.

   Here's an update to     last Friday's story    about Marilyn Casserino, 79. Marilyn is the girl in the dark dress in the center of the photo above. This picture was taken c.1939 on the roof of the Children's Building at     Iola Tuberculosis Sanitorium    where Marilyn was a patient, along with her mother Vivian.

Unfortunately, Marilyn's mom passed away while at the hospital. Marilyn was just 6 at the time. Looking back at those days, she now wishes she could remember more - about her mom, and about this place where they were treated for well over a year.

For starters, she wanted to try and find out who the other girls in the photo were. Would you believe in less than one week we've now identified two of those girls...

   This past Monday, Mark Hosier stumbled upon the story and left the following comment:    Imagine our surprise when my sister and I, looking for information on Iola, happen across this great story and find a picture of our mother and aunt. The girl in the center with the short blonde hair is our mother Jean Bissiett and the girl with the curley hair on Marilyn's left is her sister Beverly Ferguson (different fathers). They "cured" at Iola with their mother Esther, brother Bob and another sister Barb. Esther died there in 1945. It saddens us to see the buildings have been torn down, and so little written about the history of the place and the people who spent years there. I hope they put some kind of memorial up to commemorate the people who worked, lived and died there, so they aren't forgotten.

I couldn't believe it. The power of the internet is real! I emailed Mark and found out he is for real as well. He sent these photos which show his mother, Jean, and aunt Beverly... the same two girls standing next to Marilyn in her photo!

   There's no mistaking those smiles.

   Mark says he's going to visit his mom this week and will show her Marilyn's photo to see if it jogs any memories.

For Marilyn, it was exciting news to learn a few names. But she says she still doesn't remember the girls. And says she still longs to remember her mom...

How wonderful to remember your childhood. There are so few memories for me. I remember being on the ground and looking up at a window to my mother. I remember sitting in the hall outside her door at the hospital and being held (I think I was a patient then). I sort of remember being in a dining area and not liking some food and got in trouble for not eating it. I sort of remember being in a crib and being sung to - it must have been her. These are such vague memories that I wonder if they are real.

I'm still looking for more information to share with Marilyn. But in the meantime, Mark sent more photos which show his mother during her second stay at Iola when her TB relapsed as a teenager...

   Looks like they had some fun times up on that roof.

   Check this out. That's Jean on the left... And Gene Autry on the right! The     Singing Cowboy

came to visit the patients.

   Here they are on the lawn in front of the Children's Building. Looks like they're getting ready for a group portrait.

   Here's the Children's Building which was torn down a few weeks ago.

   And here's the view looking in the opposite direction across the lawn at the Administration Building. Beautiful. The building in the background on the right was the former Infirmary (built 1915). It was demolished in 1985.