Looking Up

We had a remarkably nice day for early November, with sunshine this morning, which I enjoyed after a yoga class. I missed four classes after my fall in late September, so I'm doing two a week for a while to make those up. 

I walked around Fairhaven and took some photos, but nothing that "spoke" to me once I saw them on my computer, so I was glad that our local Anna's hummingbirds were frequenting the feeder today. This is a female, less showy than the males, but more inclined to "sit a spell and rest" than they are.

I've spent more time than I'd want to admit on family history today, looking at patterns in one family line of parents dying when their children are young, and also of parents having second marriages. For example, WHW, one of my great-great grandfathers, experienced the loss of his mother three days after his 9th birthday. Three days after his 12th birthday, his father, JJW, remarried -- and I do have to wonder why JJW chose that date, as it was three days before the third anniversary of his first wife's death.

His second wife, a widow, had a son nearly two years older than WHW, who then lost his place as eldest son in the family, followed by his two sisters. That can't have been easy. 

Interestingly, JJW and his second wife did not produce any children for nearly four years, and given the lack of reliable contraception in the 1840s, I wonder how they managed that? Their first child was born in 1844, followed at two-year intervals by three more. 

And here is that pattern again -- WHW, whose mother died shortly after his 9th birthday, died one month after his own son's 10th birthday. So sad! There is much more, but no time tonight to write it.

I'm deeply grateful for all of your comments, stars, and hearts for yesterday's blip, and apologize for not getting around to all your journals today. I'll do better tomorrow!

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