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?

Definitely! I was at uni studying safeguarding at the time Lord Laming's report came out and it's one of the horrific things I've ever read. Unless you've got a very strong stomach- don't 😭

Just a few of the top of my head that have really got to me:

Lady Jane Grey
The Bamberg Witch Trials (even young children were burned at the stake)
The Titanic disaster
George Stinney
Edith Thompson
Emmett Till
Ruth Ellis
The Manson Murders

Her suicide note breaks my heart, it’s so tender and resigned.

It's the stories.

The headmaster at Aberfan who died trying to protect some of the children. The stories of the rescuers and the children who survived.

The families in Senghenydd and Abertridwr who lost multiple family members - one woman lost two sons and her husband, or that 8 (iirc) of the victims were only 14.

And the fact both disasters were preventable but basically nobody wanted to spend the money.

The atrocities suffered by the slaves of Madame Delphine LaLaurie.

Torture for the pure sake of witnessing human suffering. Unfathomable.

The children who died at Aberfan 😢

There’s a gravestone in the cemetery where my DFIL is buried that simply says -
‘In memory of our little Annie who died at five months old. June 1959’.
It’s always the best kept grave and always has fresh flowers on it. I often wonder if it’s her parents who still come and whether there will always be flowers.

OP: Yep, gets me every time I a read book about the Plantagenets or Tudors. Watch it unfold and slide inexorably to the denouement. Depressing every time.

My great grandparents had 7 children in a row who died one after another - one survived to 5yrs the other 6 all died between 3 months and 2 years old. I cannot imagine how you cope with giving birth to 7 children who die like that in the space of 10 years.
They went on to have 5 more in the next 8 years who all lived into their 70s and 80s.
I don't know how they died.

A great grandparent- is recorded as going to the registrar in Scotland and recording the deaths of 3 children in one week- all under 5, all from 'nephritis' a kidney inflammation. His wife died 4 months later from blood poisoning after giving birth.

Hard for us to imagine. All those tiny lives not lived.

I saw a photo of Czesława Kwoka - I don’t think I’ll ever forget her. Apparently she died at 14 from a lethal injection to the heart at Auschwitz. The poor mite has a cut on her lip from being hit by a guard and looks utterly terrified. I really hope she is at peace.

Not remotely unreasonable, OP. I have shed many tears over the suffering and death of people from history I care about.

Sebastian Kalinowski. Not really historical, but every time there is another case of a child abused and murdered by their parents/step parents in their own home, I can’t get them off my mind for months. Every case is devastating, but I think about Sebastian every day and it breaks my heart.

As a medical professional I found Dr Suzi Edge’s book, “Mortal Monarchs : 1000 years of royal deaths “ strangely fascinating. I guess that’s because it it is historical.

It's Boleyn. Anne Boleyn.

The death of River Phoenix was really tragic, my daughter loves him even though she’s only 20 it’s only when she told me all about him after she brought many books, I realised just how sad it all was, his life and death, seemed like a really innocent soul.

Actually, the "creep" isn't quite as creepy as it might have been. Ms. Monroe is not buried, she is interred in a mausoleum crypt, along with many other spots. So, there's a slab of concrete, as well as two coffins between them. It isn't quite as intimate as it sounds...but what an utterly selfish, ego-driven thing for him to have done!

Emmet Till & to think the woman lied !

It’s Hugh Hefner. Ten metres of concrete between them wouldn’t lessen how creepy it is.

Also Sharon Tate. Reading about how she begged them to spare the life of her unborn child and then cried for her Mum as they were stabbing her brought me to tears. She was only 26 years old.

Queen Anne had 17 children, all of whom died or were stillborn. Makes me very sad

Similarly Lola James - having a Kemal life then a new man abuses and kills her within 16 weeks while her mother did absolutely nothing about it. Awful.

And possibly the worst story I’ve ever read - Suzanne Capper. The most gruelling, tortuous death, over a jacket. And barely a slip of media attention

Not historic, but this couple who died by suicide after their little boy died from meningitis. I won't put here the details, but they can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/jun/02/couple-suicide-son-beachy-head

And also Chatlotte Bevan and her daughter. My friend and I had both suffered serious post-natal mental illness and we were just terrified in those hours she was missing, and then heartbroken when they found the bodies. Avoidable deaths if only we had better care for vulnerable women post-natally.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/09/chain-failings-led-death-charlotte-bevan-newborn-baby-coroner-rules

Kipling's son. Kipling wrote "If" for him after he was born. When WW1 came I think they both saw it as the chance for gallantry/patriotism/dashing heroism but he was too short sighted to be accepted into the army. So Kipling used his influence to pull strings. Only for his son to then die alongside countless other men at the battle of Loos. And Kipling never found out exactly what had happened to him or his body.

Also this woman: Browse - Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org). Gave birth in the street to a child out of wedlock (having been thrown out of the house she was working in). Was found apparently half conscious by a passer by. Not only did the baby die but she was then sentenced to death for not calling for help (despite the obvious sympathies of everyone in the courtroom)

Just a random woman but so sad.