How WWI and the Influenza Pandemic Changed Victorian Mourning Practices

The Noble House, where I work as a docent, puts out a bi-annual newsletter, and my boss has asked me to write articles along the theme of whatever our display is each year. We are doing A House in Mourning: Victorian Funerals this year, so last spring, she asked me to write an article about Lincoln, the Civil War, and embalming. This fall, she asked me what I would like to write about, and I suggested the topic of how WWI and the Influenza outbreak affected Victorian mourning practices. I see parallels between then and now.

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What was that?

[I am hoping that by changing the date on this, it will go out again. The actual date it was written was on August 16th, but no one got it because of a glitch in the system.]

Today I was working at the Noble House. During the 10:00-11:00 hour, I had one couple come in for a tour and then another couple came in as they were leaving. It was during the second tour of the day that something happened that has never happened before…

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What did the groundhog see?

We woke up this morning to light snow that wasn’t sticking, but by 4:00 this evening, it was coming down a little harder. People around here are sick of it. I have never seen it snow so close to May before!

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Lincoln, the Civil War, and Embalming

My boss at the Noble House back in Door County is putting together the spring newsletter, and she asked me to write an article for it. Our tour this summer is going to be A House In Mourning: Victorian Funerals so she gave me the assignment of writing about embalming during the Civil War. Spoiler alert: If you are squeamish, this might not be a good article for you to read!

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Overtime

Nothing particularly interesting has been happening for a while, but this week I have a quick report to make. My boss and her daughter who is one of our receptionists have Covid, so both of them are out for the week. Another of our receptionists is out sick, I’m not sure if it’s with Covid or not, but she’s been out since last Saturday. A third receptionist is having surgery this Thursday and is staying home so as not to get sick before then. The fourth receptionist is in college and covered for the weekend last weekend, but can’t come in during the week. One of our tax advisors covered the front desk today and will be covering it again tomorrow. So I have been going in from 10:00 in the morning until 7:00 or 8:00 the last couple of days, and yesterday was supposed to be one of my weekend days. Besides my usual work, I am also helping with the phones and covering the desk in the evening when the other receptionist goes home. Please pray for health in our office!

From Tucson, AZ

We actually arrived in Tucson last evening, but one of our slideouts was broken so that we couldn’t open it, and we couldn’t find the hotspot in the jumble of things packed into our tight space. Mark managed to fix our slideout today and found the hotspot. It’s so handy to be married to an RV tech!

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From Klamath Falls, OR

Mom and Mark and I headed to southern Oregon today to visit my younger sister, Lauryn, and her family for the weekend. The family consists of my brother-in-law, Rob, and my nephew, Nate, as well as my sister. Also here are Rob’s daughter-in-law, Cynthia, and his young grandchildren.

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