As a volunteer gravestone photographer, I spend more time in
cemeteries than most. I find cemeteries—so quiet and serene most of the time—relaxing
places to be. But one thing about them scares me.
I usually photograph a cemetery’s oldest sections. Lots of
young women died in childbirth 100+ years ago, and you see this reflected in
the gravestones. The stones also tell a story of what life was like before we
had vaccines. When diphtheria devastated a community, for instance, a family
could lose multiple children in the same week. Or the same day.
I get where anti-vaxxers are coming from; I have strongly
mixed feelings myself about modern medicine. But I’m afraid they haven’t
thought this through. I wish I could take them on a very personal and very scary cemetery
tour.
Children of Angeline Buckland Hudson (1843 – 1926):
Hattie M.
(1863 – 1865
Sylvenus
(1864 – 1870)
Nettie (1866 –
1866)
Willard (1867
– 1870)
Oscar (1869 –
1877)
Ambrose (1871
– 1877)
Hattie L.
(1874 – 1877)
Harry (1876 –
1877)
Blanche (1881
– 1881)
Angeline also had three sons who lived to adulthood:
Clarence, Charles, and Ellsworth.
Hear hear!
ReplyDelete1877...can't imagine surviving that.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely can't imagine it either. I've read that young wives were told "If you want to have four children, you need to have eight." And often babies weren't named until they were 3 or 4. The parents must have developed coping mechanisms to distance themselves from the young ones, although that would defy biology. So I just can't imagine.
ReplyDeleteIt is very scary, indeed. The risks to the world. To our lifestyles. To individuals.
ReplyDelete(I was at a cemetery a couple of days ago, in the old section too - I saw a lot of notations of young people's deaths.)
This is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteSo sad. I am glad we have vaccines.
ReplyDelete