4/08/2008 prc black death 1642

20080804 Black death 1642

P (very teary) I just finished “Time out or Mind” by Joan Grant, and have cried, and got the words:

That I grieve for my lost lover, dying those days when the waters were warm and the grass was soft, and the butterflies melted together and apart, dancing in the air above the blooms on those raw azure days when the forests were tall, and death was not understood except as a body who died. For in those days, everything died, and it was the disease that took her, for it was her willingness to work unstintingly in the latrines and for other people, in which I saw the first signs of her own illness and her growing emaciation. And it was quite quick compared to some. But she was my love! And I loved her! And we slept together even though she was ill, and I carried her when she could no longer walk, and I died myself not too much later, for I too caught that disease the black death. We were not in a town, a mere village. It was not something we had heard was coming. People just started to get sick and we didn’t know why. And before long people started dying one after the other, and it seemed like almost the whole village was gone. I was one of the last and there was almost none left to dig the grave.

Who was she? She was Janet, who cleans and cleans and cleans, for she knows what dirt can do. And I loved her then, and I love her now (cries piteously). And it took our boys! (cries again). Our two boys! Oh God; Oh God !!! (cries more in compete anguish) And we didn’t know why. We didn’t know what we should have done to keep them safe. One was Min. I don’t know about Steph, so I guess not. Oh God it was awful !

I’m seeing the remains of an old cobbled road, with a thatched-roof house on one side under big trees. And a place where the hillside which was not too steep had been dug out so the house nestled into that flat area. It had thick old walls, and a chimney that didn’t work too well, and rough furniture. I don’t see marks of saws, it must have all been chiselled or just split.

So it was a long time ago. And really made people take notice of death, because most people died. That’s when the hatred of death started. That’s still going on. People are not over it yet. It’s really only just become something you can talk about again.

I got a date of 1642, unlikely though that may be. I’ll check with the websites, because that was Columbus.

ps: Another outbreak occurred in 1636, so it is possible.

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Events

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Peter Calvert - AgapeSchoolinz