I guess this is different, though if you think about it, 'doing your best no matter what the world throws at ya' was probably not that different in that day:
My husband's grandmother, his Dad's mom, got married in 1935, had his Dad, and then her husband died. They had a coal company that she took over and ran for at least 20 years that I know of. My husband's Dad was 8 when his Dad died.
Through all that, she seems to have done quite well.
She died 6 mos after I married her grandson, and oh, we would have been such friends, we had so much in common. We were lucky, she was a 'saver.'
She remarried in 50's and she had momentos from each marriage in separate chests in her basement. Just FULL of family stuff.
Upstairs there was a closet with pristine quilts, that since my husband said he never saw her quilting, we assume her mother made. We came to this conclusion because she had 4 laminated photos of her mom sitting in front of a quilting frame.
Just oodles and oodles of family stuff, very neatly organized, I hope I can do her the honor of leaving it all, very neatly organized, to be passed ion when I am gone.