Bank Failure

"She put it in the bank and the bank failed, isn't that awful? It is worse than not having any to lose. Mother said not to mention it when I write so don't you, if you happen to write to mother."
From a letter written by my grandmother, whose sister's husband had just died. She sold the family farm, and like it says, put the money in the bank and the bank failed. This was back in the "good old days" before "big government" programs like the FDIC and thus she lost everything. She had five kids to feed.