We stopped under a large Maple Tree with the beautiful breeze blowing softy on the warm day. What a refreshing moment it was.
There beside us was a giant grave stone with these simple words engraved on it. They were placed there two centuries ago.
“Fare you well Husband and children dear,
I am not dead but sleeping here.
You went home my dear and left me lonesome
Lonely wandering all my days.
The time will come when I will be laid to rest beside you
And I hope to the Lord we will meet in Heaven.”
Six simple lines outlining two dear people with very deep feelings. Likely penned by a husband that was so sad there were only these words to outline his sorrow.
She passed away fairly young – and left him with a family to rear on his own.
Many of the graves in that area are of women aged some where between 20 years to 45 years of age. Child birth was likely the reason.
A very old doctor that I had met in the last century describe how, during his training, almost half of the women who were having babies did so knowing that they would not be alive to raise their kids. They would die in child birth.
Infection of some kind took these young women very early. The medical folk of that day didn’t know what we know about washing their hands. The older doctor looked at me rather sadly that day and just shook his head when he related the story.
There on Mrs. Galvin’s grave was the sorrow of long ago.
I thought of her as we rode away on our bikes. I thought that today it might be good to say – I remembered.
The last words were powerful…
“And I hope to the Lord we will meet in Heaven…”
What a thought… maybe I will make it – maybe not…?
Something to ponder…
~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/
There beside us was a giant grave stone with these simple words engraved on it. They were placed there two centuries ago.
“Fare you well Husband and children dear,
I am not dead but sleeping here.
You went home my dear and left me lonesome
Lonely wandering all my days.
The time will come when I will be laid to rest beside you
And I hope to the Lord we will meet in Heaven.”
Six simple lines outlining two dear people with very deep feelings. Likely penned by a husband that was so sad there were only these words to outline his sorrow.
She passed away fairly young – and left him with a family to rear on his own.
Many of the graves in that area are of women aged some where between 20 years to 45 years of age. Child birth was likely the reason.
A very old doctor that I had met in the last century describe how, during his training, almost half of the women who were having babies did so knowing that they would not be alive to raise their kids. They would die in child birth.
Infection of some kind took these young women very early. The medical folk of that day didn’t know what we know about washing their hands. The older doctor looked at me rather sadly that day and just shook his head when he related the story.
There on Mrs. Galvin’s grave was the sorrow of long ago.
I thought of her as we rode away on our bikes. I thought that today it might be good to say – I remembered.
The last words were powerful…
“And I hope to the Lord we will meet in Heaven…”
What a thought… maybe I will make it – maybe not…?
Something to ponder…
~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/
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