Maureen, thank you for your comment, which was very kindly put.
Martha's early death and that of Robert two years later had an immense impact on my family with repercussions down to this day - people still talk about it.
It's particularly thoughtful of you given that I suppose they are complete strangers to you.
Newcastle in the mid-late 19th century was expanding and industrializing very rapidly - as were many cities - and this led to many additional early deaths, whether from uncontrolled disease, poor working practices, environmental pollution, crime, mental illness, or accidents. Those are just off the top of my head out of my limited knowledge, but I'm sure there are others here much more familiar with the period than me. I'd be glad to get more insight into what people were going through. The fact that we can even consider generalizing is testament to many thousands or millions of individuals alongside Martha and the awful situations they each found themselves in.
I have no problem with being lighthearted at the selfsame time as acknowledging all this but I'm sorry it must have seemed so flippant to you.
