Tonight's picture was taken in the Spring of 2006. Mattie was in preschool, and Peter visited that day. Despite Peter's work schedule, he made time to engage with Mattie's school, to volunteer, and he even did a coconut cutting presentation for the children. Mattie's teacher, snapped this photo that day in class and sent it to me. It is truly hard to grasp that both Mattie and his teacher, Margaret, are no longer alive.
Quote of the day: Sometimes our work as caregivers is not for the faint of heart. But, you will never know what you’re made of until you step into the fire. Step bravely. ~ Deborah A. Beasley
I consider myself a very organized person who can manage multiple things at one time. But balancing the care of my parents is a full time job times ten. I spend every waking moment jumping from one task or chore to the other. Never accomplishing much for myself. To say I am frustrated some days is an understatement beyond proportion.
On an aside, I was reading to my parents this morning the daily news from my dad's memory care center. The news is always historical, interesting, and at times funny. One of today's passages was about MAILING babies and children through parcel post. I honestly couldn't believe what I was reading, so I did a little digging and indeed at one point in time (~1913) Americans mailed children through the actual mail. I mean literally, by attaching stamps to their coats. It was cheaper to buy the stamps to send a child by Railway Mail than to buy him or her a ticket on a passenger train.
This happened to about 7 children in total. I included the link for you to read it for yourself: https://www.history.com/news/mailing-children-post-office
Mailing babies was never the goal of the new parcel system and once the authorities realized that people were using it outside its intended purpose, they put a stop to it. In 1920, the Post Office Department officially put an end to baby mail. This was after new postal regulations barring the mailing of human beings were enforced.
The first child to be sent via mail was James Beagle in 1913. He was an eight-month old baby who weighed 10 and 3/4 pounds and was sent from Ohio to his grandmother’s house in Batavia (also in Ohio). His parents paid 15 cents for postage and $50 for insurance.
All I could think was this was a very different world back then! The article mentions that people weren't turning their children over to strangers. That in many cases they knew their postal people very well. The mailmen actually road the mail train with the children, tended to them, cared for them if ill, and hand delivered the children to their destination. I can't imagine this whatsoever given my 2022 lens. Not sure if you find this as fascinating as me, but thought I would share this tidbit from today.
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