Every memorial day the extended family would gather to tend the graves to remember and share the family lore. According to that family lore she six year old Lulu nursed the family through some epidemic (smallpox?) only to succumb herself when they had recovered.
Through a MI Genealogical Website, I located a death record (Lula...) that specified measles as the cause of death. Even though it makes for good graveside reminiscences, there's no way to verify the tale at this time.
Lulu Worden. Daughter of Clarissa Teachout & Louis Worden. b. 1881 - d 20 Mar 1888.
Alex...I find this interesting. Probably because my grandmother shared a fascination for walking through old cemeteries with me. There is one up north from the original founders (1700's)of the Finnish town named Kaleva. My brother and I own a cottage up there about a mile out of town. It's been in our family for three generations. Walking through old cemeteries and doing 'rubbings' on gravestones provides a lot of history. Stories like Lulu Warden's are much more commonplace then than today. I've seen many rows of gravestones where a family has lost all or many of its young children to diseases like whooping cough, consumption, measles and the like. Though we've 'conquered' many of these, they still threaten when we avoid being vaccinated for them.
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