A Sick Day in the Victorian Year

Greetings all, Ken here. I've been sick the last couple of days and normally this isn't such a big deal. Unless you're self employed, most of us do have a limited number of sick days we can use for this. In Victorian times however, this wasn't the case. It hit home to me because I was supposed to load in a weeks worth of wood for the furnace and the cookstove and was unable to because I was sick. This would mean one of two things in 1865, either I would load the wood in whilst I was sick (and risk making myself worse) or my wife would have to do this on top of all the other things she does in a day.

Margaret didn't have to load in wood yesterday because we had enough to last through till today. I'm feeling better so I have loaded in wood and kept the fires going so the house stays warm for when my love gets home tonight.

My sickness of the last few days got me thinking about how much closer to the edge folks lived in 1865. By this I mean the resources a farm family had to draw on were mainly those contained within the family itself with outside help in times of dire need. I imagine entire families perished in the dead of winter because of influenza or some other contagious illness. I also imagine that their absence wouldn't be taken amiss until the first thaw or maybe even spring. A gloomy thought indeed.

I have always wondered why folks either died young or lived to a ripe old age, and I suspect this may be one of the reasons. Illnesses we don't think twice about would be a serious concern, especially in a farmstead where the immediate resources were limited and the outside resources might be an two hours away (based on a 1 hour trip into town by horse).

Food for thought, and a renewed appreciation of our modern health care system.

Thanks, Ken.