Grandmother
Thompson Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Library,
The William Charvat Collection of American Literature
PS2698.R8 G65 1907 

"Rachel, here's my wife! Here's your little grandmother that's come to be a playmate for you."

Grandmother: The Story of a Life that Never Was Lived by Laura E. Richards is a 132-page sentimental novel about a grandfather remarrying a young woman who is the same age as his granddaughter: 18. The story follows the aging of the "Little Grandmother," which is caused by emotional distress. Chapters are separated into the changes from aging such as "How the First Line Came in her Face," from her encounter with a long lost love, and "How Her Hair Turned White," from witnessing the preventable death of the granddaughter Rachel's baby. At the time of the book's publication, Richards was 57 and her children would have been in their thirties, so she might have been a grandmother herself.