So many Deaths.......

[Pollynation]

like many people in my family i too have lost a child, he lived for only eight weeks. At the time i was really heartbrocken but now after 14 years it's not so bad. Most of my family has lost at least one child, all my aunties+uncles and grandparents. Maybe it's something genetic? Even now there is still no explanation of cot death.

Pauline

[MeganWilber]

Aaron I know the feeling.  One of my 2 greats grandmothers had a very sad life.  Her mother had 2 husbands that died very young, then her mother married her 3rd husband which was the father of my 2 greats grandmother.

There were 9 siblings in total (not counting my 2 greats grandmother) of which 3 died as children, 1 died at the age of 20ish, another at 30, and the last in their 40's (except my 2 greats grandmother). 

Her mother died when she was 9 and she got shifted around between a sister and aunt's house. 

She outlived her husband (who died when she was about 50 and so was he).

She had 12 children of which 6 died as small children.  2 we know made it to adulthood and married but we don't know what happened.  Another made it to adulthood and died at about 20-21.  The rest lived longer than her at least.

I mean can you imagine such a life?  Not to mention all the moving around they did.  She was born in Alabama, moved to Louisiana, then to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas!

I wonder about her a lot, what she was like, how she felt, what she thought, etc.  I cannot even being to imagine the huge losses she went through and the suffering she went through to even survive in those times.

[Darcy]

Hi Megan,

that's exactly what I mean - you wonder how they managed to struggle on.

These days people are councilled if they fall over. Our ancestors had to work so hard for so little comfort and carry such heavy burdens - I think they were made of sterner stuff than we are.

Pollynation - somehow I missed your post. I can understand a little of how you felt as I have friends who suffered the same loss.That's why I just can't imagine how our forebears went through it again and again.

Aaron

[carrey]

I am currently transcribing for free bmd and this week have been working on deaths. there are so many children and being a bit of a fictional writer i wonder at the cause of these deaths and what parents and family would be feeling. It is a fact that many times children were born with their parents realising they may not reach adulthood but they would still have to have hopes and dreams for each little one and the heart would break with each death.
Life was harsh then and even now as each of my children get their license or get in a car with a friend or go to a night club there is that fear that something could go wrong as it does regularly according to the news. One always hopes it will never happen to them.

[MrsLizzy]

Oh Poll, I am sorry about your baby boy!  It is sad that children who are so wanted seem to go and yet people who perhaps shouldn't have children get to keep theirs.

I am puzzled about the sad story of my great great grandfather and his sister.  They were illegitimate, and their mother died when they were six and about four respectively.  Their natural father's married sister seems to have adopted only my great-gret grandfather, whilst the little girl seems to have been brought up by her father's mother.   I am sure there must have been some bad feeling and I wonder if they treated her badly, because she committed suicide when she was 17.  No-one in the family ever talked about her - all that was said, when I asked my grandmother if her grandad had any siblings was "Yes there was a sister called Ada but she died."