Love and Death

The Irish Matriarch had to deal with death constantly. In modern days we say that no parent should have to bury their children, but I wonder if we are the first generation that has the audacity to assert this. How did she deal with it all?

• Of the five children she gave birth to, three lived to adulthood.
• She buried her husband 18 days before her youngest son's wedding.
• Two daughters-in-law died, leaving her to raise three granddaughters.
• Of the fourteen grandchildren that I know of, eight lived to adulthood. Four died as infants or young children, while two died in their teen years.

Each of these losses must have brought her pain, but she persevered through it all. Agnes Burgan lived with her children and grandchildren until death came in 1924.