Forgotten Mamas and Babies

In a need to get out of the house, take a break from ProGen homework and the computer, I decided to take a spur of the moment trip over to Chatham County, NC. The person of my assignment this month, Thomas Sidney Richardson, was from this county before moving to Norfolk County, MA. Thomas's first wife and stillborn daughter are buried in Chatham County. 

I've been thinking about how many mothers and babies seem to be lost in the past. Most often their deaths were due to childbirth and illness. Many buried in unmarked graves but even those graves we can find seem to be lost and forgotten until we make it a point to search them out. Today is the day I felt the need to find Louisa "Lou" F. Martin Richardson and her baby girl and let them know they are not forgotten. 

Lou's gravestone was large and the inscription read, "Tho lost to sight in memory dear". She is buried beside her mother, father and daughter. Lou's father died before her so that meant her mother may have stood there with Thomas and other family members in such heartache of losing these two precious lives.

Thomas and Lou had been married in Browns Chapel United Methodist Church on 14 Aug 1886, she was nineteen. Lou died on 8 Feb 1887, not yet reaching her twentieth birthday. Lou and her daughter are buried in the church graveyard.

As often happens in the course of research, I have conflicting information. Lou's gravestone has a death date of 8 Feb 1887. Their daughter's gravestone states she was stillborn on 7 Mar 1887. Did the stone cutter get the dates switched? Did he get one of the months wrong? If the baby was stillborn she wouldn't have been born a month after Lou died. More likely, if they didn't die within a day of each other, the baby would have died and Lou would have died the next day or within the next month. 

Today they received flowers and a part of my heart in the form of glass heart cabochons made in my kiln. These hearts often go to those I hold dear to my heart in life and also to those who have passed that I will carry in my heart. I like to bury these hearts about a foot down into the grave. 

I hope Lou and baby girl Richardson have traveled happier journeys since their sad days in 1887. Thank you both for the opportunity to discover your lives and for today to make a new memory.

​"Tho lost to sight in memory dear" 

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