How Blessed We Are

David has been working at the cemetery this summer.  It's not bad work, he mostly just keeps the water going and occasionally filling in graves.  He doesn't mind it and it pays better than the job I've been at for the last 5 years... Sometimes I go out to the cemetery with him and walk around while he changes the water.  I've noticed something while I've been walking around, especially in the older parts of the cemetery.  There are so many graves of babies and small children.  I would guess that almost half of the graves out there are from children under the age of 10.  Some of those headstones don't have the names of the children, presumably because the child was still-born.  Those graves are marked as "Baby Smith" or "Infant Gray".  Usually there will be a headstone for the parents, and then 3 or 4 right next to it of children of theirs that died. 

It makes me feel so sad to see those.  Whenever I see that, I try to imagine what it must have been like for that mother.  To have so many children die at such a young age.  I don't have any children so I don't know what it's like to have that bond, but I know what it's like to have a husband and family that I'm very close with.  I know that at the turn of the century, the child mortality rate was very high compared to what it is now.  I found a few different sites that all stated basically the same thing.  Here is one site's statistic- 165 per 1,000 children died in the first year.  That's 16%.  Other sites say anywhere from 10-16%.  In 1997, the mortality rate was 7 per 1,000.  Less that 1%.

It's amazing what advances have been made.  Amazing that people don't have to suffer like they once did.  Of course, we have all new sorts of ailments now, but I'm just so glad our medical system can help as many people as they do.  It's amazing. 

As for those small little graves, I always think of my mother when I see those.  She wrote a blog post that I like. She found an app for her phone (it's called BillionGraves) that lets her take pictures of the headstone and, along with her GPS coordinates, she uploads it to a website where people can look and see where their ancestors are buried.  I think it's a great way to do family history.  My little brother even started helping her!  I would help, but I'd have to go a long way to find a cemetery she hasn't already visited.  Maybe when (someday) we make it back to North Carolina I'll start on the east coast and we'll meet up somewhere in the midwest!  If you look at her blog you can hear lots of stories about her adventures while doing this. 

I just hope when people see my grave in 100 years, that they'll try to think about how I might have lived just like what I try to do with others.  I think it helps bring all of humanity together.  And helps us realize what's really important.