Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
—————————————————————
Birmingham, 1910
The weather somehow knew what tragedy had occurred. It knew what would follow the tragedy, what the tragedy would forge. It would be the start of a whirlwind of tragedies and misery. The once happy family would fall. No one would leave unscathed, everyone would be victims of the following events. Small Heath would never be the same.
It was storming in Small Heath. The rain was pouring, every droplet falling like small pebbles. Thunder shaking every house and scaring cries out of every child. Following the thunder, lightning struck the sky, striking down on multiple houses and buildings.
The Shelby family were in mourning. Earlier tragedy had struck. Katarina Ada Shelby had been found lifeless by the cut. The once pink lips were blue. The once tan skin was pale, closer to blue than it's previous complexion. The body was cold, freezing to the touch.
On the 26th of March 1909 Katarina Ada Shelby was dead. At 40 years old she was dead, with so much to live for and so much to see. She would never see her youngest kids grow up. She would never see all her children fall in love, and get married. And she would never experience the love of holding her grandchildren. Worst of all, she would never hold any of her children again, and they would never feel their mothers touch again.
—————
"Isabella? Sweetheart. Let go. You have to eat something." Isabella hadn't let go of Arthur since he found her the day before.
Isabella had been playing outside with Nicholas and their other friend Sage, and had been on her way to the yard to see her horse, when she saw her mother standing by the canal. The young girl didn't think anything of it, so she kept on walking towards the yard. Unfortunately on her way back home – hours later – she had to walk by the canal where she once again saw her mother. However this time she was in the murky water, unmoving.
Once Isabella had comprehended what she was witnessing she screamed for help, that would never come. The little girl was somehow able to drag her mothers body towards the ground, where she started chest compressions – she had previously read about them – only for her mother to not respond.
When she gave up on getting a response from her mother she laid down next to her freezing body. She laid her head on Katarina's chest, and cuddled herself into the body. Isabella was weeping and sobbing loudly while holding onto her mother.
Hours later when Isabella hadn't returned home the Shelby family were worried, they knew she wasn't at the Matthews' – since it was their night apart – and they had no idea where she could be. The brothers and Polly went out looking for her, and if it wasn't for Arthur going to check the yard they wouldn't have found her.
