Agnes, a Polish immigrant, lived in a small farmhouse in upstate New York with her husband and infant son Paul. In 1925 the farmhouse caught fire. Agnes grabbed her baby and tried to escape the flames, almost free, the porch roof collapsed on them both.
Protected in his mother's arms, Paul survived and as a child was told the story... that he and his mother were pulled from the fire, his mother was sent to a nearby hospital where she died.