Saturday, March 2, 2013

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Threads of Life
Weekend Writing Warriors #5

My great-grandparents, August and Auguste Schumann,  lost three children from diphtheria in two days during the middle of grain harvest, July of 1887. This appears to have been all their living children. But life goes on for the living. During that illness, Auguste was already three months pregnant with another child.

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"Auguste thinks, “Thank God, the mornings of nausea are past. Thank God, this child within me was protected from the disease. I do not know if I even want another child. Are they all meant to die so young?” Each day, for many days after the deaths, Auguste walked to their graves and sat on the ground for a while before she prepared the evening meal. She and August have taken to eating their meal in silence and then going straight to bed. They had stumbled through the grain harvest of summer together. Now they were gathering fuel from the sparse fallen trees for those cold, wind-swept winters that lay ahead."

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8 comments:

  1. Great imagery and a well-described scene.

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  2. My heart breaks for Auguste. I can't imagine... just can't imagine. Your style of telling without a tedious amount of showing works well for this part of your memoir, I think. In your setup, you mentioned that life goes on. I think your style very clearly portrays that idea.

    One thing I noticed--

    "...for those cold, wind-swept winters that lay ahead." Were they gathering wood for several winters? Or were they gathering wood for the "cold, wind-swept winter days..."? Just curious.

    Excellent post, Carol! :-)

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    1. Teresa, I think it was one year at a time in this location. However, staying warm through a winter takes a lot of fuel. I'm not even sure how many trees there were. How else would they heat? I guess by twisting prairie grass into small clumps. Cattle dung also provided fuel in some locations. I hope to travel here next summer to better see terrain. I may need to edit some of this once I do.

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  3. I'm happy for her that she's pregnant again but I certainly understand her misgivings. Such vivid storytelling! Excellent excerpt yet again.

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    1. Thank you. I fear you all will be bored going on and on about the same family. But if I ever hope to have my own family read it, I must test it on you.

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  4. Imagine being a mother back then. I would be so afraid and happy at the same time too. But the guilt she must feel at any happiness with the new pregnancy after losing so many children. You are doing a great job of conveying the emotional turmoil.

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    1. You are so kind to keep reading. I am trying to learn how to write and am inspired by all of you great authors.

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