Reality Check

Winding down from work this evening (some wags ask if I ever wind up!), I checked out the graveyard close to my hotel AGAIN. This gravestone caught my attention, mainly because the engraving is very crisply done. Reading the inscription, and being the father of three children myself, I was very taken by the tragedy that destroyed this young family in the spring and summer of 1880.
In a period of only nineteen days, William James Codd lost his son, also called William James Codd, aged 3 years and 5 months on 5 March 1880, his daughter, Sarah Margaret Codd, aged 4 years and 11 months on 11 March 1880, and his wife, Mary Anne Codd, aged 32 years and 5 months who died on 24 March 1880. He himself died later in the summer on 20 August 1880 aged 34 years.
There is no other information available on the gravestone, but I imagine that some illness carried them away in such a short period of time. I cannot even begin to envisage the pain and sorrow involved.
Made me think how lucky I am, although you wouldn't know it when you hear me bitching and moaning about trivial things.
Reality checks can bring you down to earth with a bump.