In Delaware County, sometime around 1930, stood a small farm that became the subject of countless conversations throughout the community.
People didn’t talk about it because it was beautiful.
They didn’t talk about it because it involved something big.
They were talking about it because of what had happened in a small room.
A room of only 3 by 3.6 meters.
A room that could fit an entire family.
Twelve children.
Two parents.
And a survival story that would live on in the memory of the neighbors for generations.
The family became known as the family with the « Sardine Room ».
It was not an official name that was recorded in any document.
It was a name coined by the neighbors, who looked at the overcrowded little farmhouse and could hardly believe how many people lived under one roof.
At night the children slept shoulder to shoulder, arranged from youngest to oldest, their bodies in a row like pieces in a packed wooden box.
