Sad over historical deaths?

[Personyouneedisnannymcphee]

Obviously death happens every day and there are many recent, very sad deaths. But some historical ones actually make me ache a little when I think about them I think due to the details and historical background of them more so than sometimes things I hear on the news. Some of these being:

-the Romanov children. Of course the Tsar was horrific but how they died thinking they were going to safety and then didn’t get killed by bullets as jewels in their clothes protected them so they were finished with bayonets.

-Anne Boylyn’s death because the details of her ladies not letting the men touch her afterwards for fears they’d violate her headless body.

AIBU for sometimes being incredibly sad over these people I never knew or do you have your own historical death that makes your stomach drop when you think of it?

Sorry that should've read 'I can't begin to comprehend...'

Yes, I saw that programme too. There was another one on fairy recently, as well. Last year, or so.
I agree, she must have been terrified. And freezing and hungry.
It really affected me because I thought someone would be able to get into my bedroom and take me.
Poor girl.
I sometimes wonder if her parents ever wonder if people remember her and think of her. It would bring me a little comfort to know that.

fairly *

Suzanne Capper... poor, poor girl..horrific.

The Moors Murders.. Hindley/Brady.

I have always felt so sorry for the Mother of Keith. She never got peace. His body has never been found.

EVIL..

Have you seen the French sci-fi series Missions? Komarov is a character - it's on iPlayer.

Sylvia Likens. I hadn't heard about her death until a few years ago and read a lot about it and it was horrendous, what that poor girl suffered is incomprehensible.

That's absolutely horrific!

Absolutely brutal @aSofaNearYou Such evil people.

I have not! I'll check it out -- thanks for the recommendation! Would love to cry about Komarov again!

And so many people knew or heard something and didn't do anything, it beggars belief!

I've learnt some truly awful things on this thread.

The Wineville chicken coop murders.

I haven’t read the full thread, but completely agree with the pp who suggested George Stinney.

Also, some of the people who resisted the Nazis were unbelievably brave e.g. Hans and Sophie Scholl and Helmuth Hübener. They were facing execution and still tried to take all the blame into themselves to save their friends. They were so young as well.

I also remember reading about a married couple and her mother who were tried by the Nazis for treason/resistance activities. The husband tried to take all of the blame in court, insisting that the women knew nothing about it. But the women spoke out and took their share of the blame. All three were executed. I wish I could remember their names.

Many of the on-line genealogy sites welcome volunteers to transcribe documents, I do it for a county on-line parish clerks. If you search on line parish clerks there are about 8 counties that I know of.
One of the most interesting ones I did was the baptism of a baby in the early 20th century, it was the church we had attended prior to moving. I realised that the 'baby' was a member of our former congregation whose golden wedding and 80th birthday we had been to!

Not quite historical but Shanann Watts and her beautiful girls Bella and Celeste, not forgetting her unborn baby she had named Niko. That case will never leave me x

YANBU. There was a girl in the news who came to the UK from Canada to meet her boyfriend online and he end up murdering her. I don’t know why that upset me so much - I don’t even know her.

I think what made me even sadder was if she didn’t require a covid test to return back to Canada, she probably would still be alive.

The year after the Viola Beach tragedy, Coldplay were headlining Glastonbury. During their set, they played a video of Viola Beach, thereby letting Viola Beach "headline" Glastonbury. I thought that was a lovely gesture. Viola Beach may well have gone on to headline Glastonbury had their lives not been so sadly cut short.

Not a famous death, but my dad lost a cousin in the Ibrox disaster in 1971. I remember my dad reminiscing about it and his voice cracking when he said "he was just a wee boy watching a football match".

That reminds me of my parents' story of the Burnden Park disaster in 1946 when 33 people died on Bolton's old ground. My father, recently back from India, went to the 2nd round Cup match versus Stoke City. As he got near to the ground he met up with a couple of old RAF colleagues and, seeing the massive crowds going to the match, they decided to go into town for a few drinks and a catch-up. When he arrived home at about 7pm, he wasn't a great drinker, my mother screamed at him, he hadn't heard of the deaths, she'd heard off the radio and when he hadn't come home she assumed the worst.

My mother lost all faith over Aberfan. It was entirely preventable. Nobody gave a flying fuck and nobody was prosecuted - can you believe it?

Even worse, £1.75 million was donated to a fund set up for the bereaved families but some of this was used by the coal board in clearing the site.
I can still recall arriving home from school, be about 15, and my mother was sitting on the sofa crying about it, we knew nothing, such was the standard of communication in the early 60s

The victims of the Beslan Siege/massacre.

Delcelia Witika.

James Whakaruru

Craig Manukau

Chris and Cru Kahui.

Too many of our little mokopuna in New Zealand, who died such callous, cruel, lonely deaths at the hands of those who should have loved their tamariki, nurtured them, cared for them, protected them.

The victims of Hillsborough.

The victims of Dunblane.

The victims of Aberfan.

9/11 Twin Towers...will forever be shocked at the bodies throwing themselves out of windows.
This is a truly poignant thread. God bless all souls involved..

There was a gravestone in our local cemetery for a four-year-old boy who’d died in the 1950s. I can’t remember the full inscription, but it was quite detailed and said he was his parents’ only child. I could feel the heartbreak in every line.

Below were the inscriptions for the boy’s parents, who’d died many years later. They were in their early forties when their beloved only child was born.

I’ve been to that cemetery twice since and that gravestone seems to have disappeared. I suspect it was one of those that failed safety testing and was removed. I wonder if anyone still remembers that family and what they went through?

Also, in a tiny village churchyard near me, is the grave of a baby girl who was born shortly before me and sadly died when she was less than two months old. Her first name is similar to mine, our middle names were the same and our surnames are different but have the same number of syllables. I think of her every time I pass through the village. Life is so arbitrary and unfair.

That is so sad. I find cemeteries heartbreaking at times.

There is a tiny grave in the cemetery near my parents' house, dated early 1800s, which just says, "Foundling. Age 2-3 days. Known only unto God". All the circumstances surrounding that little headstone just break my heart; the mother having to make that choice, the baby left alone, and the person who found them and did what they could, even if it was just to see them buried with care.

Bit off topic but that is one reason to visit or familiarise yourself with the cemetery in which your parent is likely to be laid to rest, way before their passing looks imminent. Otherwise, any weekly visit to the cemetery is dogged by reading these heartbreaking little testimonies on gravestones, usually having to take one's emotions and condense them into a tidy telegram length piece. By the time you reach your parent's grave when you're already in mourning, you may be in bits. This particularly applies if the visit to the cemetery thing is largely new to you.