Headstones tell of DIFFERENT TIMES

Without getting into details, our family has had an ongoing exposure to the health care system in New Brunswick and P.E.I. in 2009. As worrisome as life continues to be, it could be worse. One need only research the lives of those who were interred in the pioneer cemeteries that dot the landscape. Each burial ground and each internment is a memory for someone. The St. Margaret of Scotland Pioneer Cemetery, on the Bear Shore Road, was a focus of the early Scottish community for over 100 years. Closed about 1897-98, the grave markers that remain relate some of the hardship and sorrow experienced in a territory ranging from Cable Head to Rock Barra.

The worst cruelty for a loving and caring parent is to lose a child. While there were those who achieved old age – at least two lived to be the age of 100, data shows a third world rate of infant mortality.

Perhaps half of the families faced the loss of at least one under the age of 18. John D. and Mary Jane (Montgomery) Gillis had their eighth tragedy chronicled in the Nov. 21, 1890 Daily Examiner.

There were young women, some married barely a year, who died in childbirth. Sometimes the baby survived. There were others buried in the same casket and grave as their mother.

Records describe losses from cholera, dysentery, consumption (tuberculosis), appendicitis and scarlet fever. We rarely hear or even think of these diseases today as fatal.

Accidental deaths were not by motor vehicle or air crashes; rather they were incidents at sea, being kicked or thrown by a horse or being maimed by a falling tree in the woods. A teen missing in the forest was found by his widowed mother.

There is no mention of cancer, although one wonders what a "long and painful illness" was. There was heart disease and paralysis (a stroke). Others died by "the visitation of God." A strong faith, with support pastoral and community support had to be there to help those who mourned.

The medical profession struggled as they do now to help those in crisis and need. Country doctors such as Craig, McIntyre and O'Shaughnessy were medical pioneers.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, they did not have an EMS, operating rooms, hospitals or pharmacies. Surgeries were conducted on kitchen tables. Successes were often attributed to being miracles. Midwives were more common than nurses. The word paramedic was not in the dictionary. It is far from perfect, but health care has come a long way – through learning by experience.

In 2008, a committee was established to preserve and protect this hallowed ground. The lives of each individual – some anonymous, interred here must be remembered. The group requires support. To fully appreciate our life, each of us should wander these ancestral grounds to remember, offer our respect and give thanks to our predecessors.

From the Eastern Graphic May 27, 2009