On This Day in 1929

80 Years Ago Today
April 15, 1929 - April 15, 1929

A baby Gregory was born and died in the arms of parents George William and Roxie Hazel (Stowers) Gregory in Bluefield, WV and buried in Bland County, VA. The poem is from a scrapbook belonging to my grandmother, Mary Jane (Davidson) Buckland. Maybe these words brought comfort to her as her cousin Wm lost his child. You see, she remembered losing her own infant twin daughters some nineteen years earlier. Infant death was so common prior to the 21st century. I suppose that the words of THE LITTLE GRAVE only scratch the surface of the pain they were forced to endured.

You need not dig it very wide,

Nor dig it very deep,

The little grave in which to hide

My baby - gone to sleep.

But dig it where the sun will shine

Upon it all the day,

And birds and blossoms all combine

To drive the gloom away.

Choose some fairspot, where in the spring

The grass will soonest grow;

And where the robins first will sing,

And daisy blossoms blow.

And take some violets from the brook,

And plant them at her head;

Her eyes had just their dewy look -

Our violet is dead.

How slow the days will come and go,

Now baby's gone away;

But God will love her best, I know,

Although I weep to-day.