This took place during the early years of WWII. While her husband is away in the Pacific theater, a woman takes care of their two small children. During the children's bath time, the doorbell rings. The mother hurries to the stairs to answer the door, only she slips on a toy, falls to the bottom of the stairs, and breaks her neck, dying instantly.

The visitors hear the commotion and open the door to see the dead woman. On further inspection they find the two children drowned in the bath tub.

In some versions, the mother does not die, but the children drown. She is confronted with the loss of all her family in one fell swoop. In other versions, the children pull an appliance into the tub and are electrocuted.

Could this be related to the fairy tale found in the first edition of Grimm's? One son, in imitation of his father, plays "pig-butcher" with his brother and slits his throat. The mother hears the screaming, runs out of the bathroom where she's bathing the baby, sees the older brother standing over the dying younger son, and reflexively stabs the older child. Going back to the bathroom, the mother discovers the baby has drowned. The mother hangs herself. The father dies of despair.

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