"'Mike'" writes:

"Peter James" wrote in message
...
Don Phillipson wrote:

"David Hill" wrote in message
...

A cousin of mine lost her daughter to cancer a short while ago.
She raised the following question. A man who loses his wife is a
widower, a woman who loses her husband is a widow, a child who
loses a parent is an orphan. Why is there no word in the
English language for a parent who loses a child?
Perhaps because before 1900 this was so common: most parents lost
at least one child to illness, i.e. bereavement was normal and
required no special word.
Back in the days of my youth, I took part in a Historical Survey of
a mining area in Cornwall, and one of the things we did was to
survey the local graveyards for the years 1720 -1890.. We were all
struck by the number of gravestones listing the names of children
who had died in infancy and we buried in the family plot. In one
case, 13 children 11 of whom died in infancy. One grave, which I
shall never forget in St Cleer graveyar near to Liskeard, was
dedicated to the memory of a girl who died aged 16 years of age. It
bore the following epitaph.
"Pray spare a thought as you pass by, As you are now so once was I.
As I am now, so will you be, So be prepared to follow me"
All food for thought. It was a very harrowing experience.
Peter


Part of the Masonic ritual states 'and death, the grand leveller of
all human greatness, reduces us to the same state'

"O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,"