I didn't mean that they didn't care about the babies. They were more self contained, it was part of their upbringing. It wasn't acceptable for them to show a lot of emotion. I've read some things that tell me that there were women who actually went crazy from grief, at the loss of their child. I didn't express what I meant very well. The thing that I was trying to get at, was that it wasn't unusual for babies to die. Today, if a baby dies, it's rare and very shocking. People back then didn't react with that same shock and dismay, because it wasn't something they weren't expecting. Anytime a baby got sick back then, there was very little they could do. One of my aunts died at a year old from diptheria. My father was about 10 at the time. He said he watched from the doorway as the doctor tried to save her by doing a trachiotomy on the dining room table. I can't even imagine what it took for my grandmother to stand there while a doctor did that. But she had 11 children, and lost two of them. Compared to other families back then, she was actually lucky, to only lose two. My gr-grandmother on the other side only had three, and one died at a year old. I just imagine they had to harden themselves against death. Not only did the children die, but there were so many things that could kill adults. As Phoebe shows when she is ill. Kathy (snow)