The Widow’s Four

The Widow’s Four begins around 1895, in Fresno, California. Benigna’s first husband was thrown from an exploding wagon while hauling dynamite, his serious injuries resulting in death. Benigna’s ambition to keep her four small children together, to own a home, and to secure a rich, handsome new father for her family, unfolds many amusing incidents. The belief that finding such a man would end all her worries reveals Benigna to be a person of determination, perseverance, cunning and spunk. Benigna also happens to be my own great, great grandmother. Unwilling to back down when faced with opposition or when she believed the safety of her children was threatened, Benigna boldly dropped one husband’s gun into an outhouse toilet vault. She then took a long stick and pushed the gun down out of sight, unwilling to let the offensive item remain in her home a moment longer. Benigna also managed to win and retain custody of one child by another husband after beating him at a hand of cards. Long before it was considered customary for a widow to raise her children alone, Benigna found herself doing so on more than one occasion. Determined to succeed against all odds, Benigna would do pretty much whatever she felt was necessary. Sewing for the local madame and her girls was but one of the many odd jobs Benigna took on to get by. She was innovative and resourceful. Rumor had it, in fact, that she even posed once as part of a “petrified woman” exhibit that was traveling from town to town. Benigna’s escapades often disclose a fascinating sense of humor but also reveal that she had a “knack to getting along in the world” that few people possess. Benigna was once told by a gypsy fortune teller that she would have “four” and always assumed the gypsy meant “four children.” It became clear to Benigna after her sixth child that the fortune teller must have meant “husbands.” Hence the title, “The Widow’s Four.”