Community
Three little girls, suddenly orphaned. The oldest just become 14, her siblings 12 and 10. To the fourteen-year-old rests the responsibilities of an elder sister toward the younger children. In days long gone the three children would have been forced to seek the charity of their community to assist them to survive their fate.
Their youth notwithstanding, they would have been pressed into a workforce, labouring to earn the pittance that would permit them to eke out the wherewithal for shelter and food.
If they survived to young adulthood they would then be dependent on the hope that some strong and capable - or, perversely, elderly widower - might cast an eye on their availability, giving them thereafter shelter and food in exchange for wifely and motherly duties.
And then there would result a perpetuation of precisely what had befallen them, since many young women died of sepsis during childbirth, and their bereaved husband would then seek replacement.
In our modern era, when communities are no longer rural outposts of poverty, with the poorhouse or the weaving mills or the coalmines offering respite to those who could find no other means of survival, things are different.
Nothing can expunge from these three young girls' hearts and souls their dread losses. Mother gone, her struggle with cancer a lost cause. And father, their sole parent, suddenly gone too, the result of a heart attack.
Dependent on a sole surviving family member; an elderly grandmother living elsewhere in another rural community, but too advanced in age and health-compromised to look after their needs.
Their father, a Scottish immigrant, had owned and operated a pub in downtown Perth, Ontario. But he was so deeply in debt that even the sale of the family home and the family business will accrue insufficient funds to pay off that debt.
The community of which they are an integral part has responded. Granted, the girls are now separated, each having gone to live with a different family, but this is a small town and they will see one another often. The families with whom they are now living, and who look to their care, and give them emotional support, feel the children are adjusting well to their loss and their new lives.
The town itself is responding, mounting a campaign to collect funds to implement a trust fund for the girls. People respond with charity and compassion. The girls will learn to adapt themselves to their altered familial state. They will attend schools and complete their education. They will develop a huge affection and appreciation for those who have taken them in.
They will survive their ordeal. They too represent the future of Canada. Imbibing Canadian values and support for one another. Bringing out the best of what human beings are capable of, given the challenge.
Their youth notwithstanding, they would have been pressed into a workforce, labouring to earn the pittance that would permit them to eke out the wherewithal for shelter and food.
If they survived to young adulthood they would then be dependent on the hope that some strong and capable - or, perversely, elderly widower - might cast an eye on their availability, giving them thereafter shelter and food in exchange for wifely and motherly duties.
And then there would result a perpetuation of precisely what had befallen them, since many young women died of sepsis during childbirth, and their bereaved husband would then seek replacement.
In our modern era, when communities are no longer rural outposts of poverty, with the poorhouse or the weaving mills or the coalmines offering respite to those who could find no other means of survival, things are different.
Nothing can expunge from these three young girls' hearts and souls their dread losses. Mother gone, her struggle with cancer a lost cause. And father, their sole parent, suddenly gone too, the result of a heart attack.
Dependent on a sole surviving family member; an elderly grandmother living elsewhere in another rural community, but too advanced in age and health-compromised to look after their needs.
Their father, a Scottish immigrant, had owned and operated a pub in downtown Perth, Ontario. But he was so deeply in debt that even the sale of the family home and the family business will accrue insufficient funds to pay off that debt.
The community of which they are an integral part has responded. Granted, the girls are now separated, each having gone to live with a different family, but this is a small town and they will see one another often. The families with whom they are now living, and who look to their care, and give them emotional support, feel the children are adjusting well to their loss and their new lives.
The town itself is responding, mounting a campaign to collect funds to implement a trust fund for the girls. People respond with charity and compassion. The girls will learn to adapt themselves to their altered familial state. They will attend schools and complete their education. They will develop a huge affection and appreciation for those who have taken them in.
They will survive their ordeal. They too represent the future of Canada. Imbibing Canadian values and support for one another. Bringing out the best of what human beings are capable of, given the challenge.
Labels: Family, Human Relations, Values
posted by Pieface @ 6:18 PM
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