Wisdom and Grace: In reading 2020: Eyam, England

I’ve got to admit for a people person like myself, self-distancing has been a challenge. Living three-and-a half miles from the nearest neighbor helps. I’ve done a lot of sewing projects and cleaned out areas that were long past due.

My mind has gone back to some thoughts about self-isolation in history. The first is 1918 and the Spanish Flu Epidemic that WWI soldiers returned home from Europe with. In reading “In Years Gone By” about homestead families in the Simpson and Cottonwood areas and “Always the Wind” about homestead families in the St. Joe area, it becomes very evident that death was a reality for those infected even on the wide-open prairies of northern Montana.

Find-a-grave.com has become one of my favorite web sites to visit. In typing in 1918 and Hill County it becomes apparent that too many who died in 1918 died because of the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

My mother was affected by another medical illness prevalent in 1933. Here’s the background. Mom — Gertrude Whaley — was 20 years old when she graduated from Havre High School in 1942. “I was older because I had to repeat two grades. I repeated the second grade because the winter was so awful and I just couldn’t walk the three miles from our homestead to our country school. In the fifth grade I attended McKinley School in town. I had pneumonia and I was sick for months. There were no antibiotics to treat us. You just had to treat the symptoms.” Then she would tear up and complete the story with, “I was fortunate to recover and return to school in the next fall. There were some in my class that didn’t come back and died. Yes, I was blessed.”

In 2009, my husband Rod and I traveled to Nottingham, England, to visit out daughter Amy who served as a missionary there. While there, we drove to the Peak District and stopped at the small village of Eyam — pronounced “eem” — in Derbyshire, England. The village is best known for being the “Plague Village” that chose to isolate itself when the bubonic plaque was discovered there in August 1665, rather than let the infection spread.

The plague had been brought to the village in a flea-infected bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Viccars from London. The cloth was damp and wet. The tailor placed it by the fire to dry out. Within a week, George Viccars was dead and was buried Sept. 7, 1665. After the initial deaths, the townspeople turned to their rector, the Rev. William Mompesson, and the Puritan minister Thomas Stanley. They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the disease. One of these was holding church services in an open area meadow rather than the confines of the church building. Perhaps their best-known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease. The plaque raged in the village for 14 months and it is believed that it killed about 260 villagers with only 83 surviving.

We were able to see the “Boundary Stone,” a stone in which money, usually soaked in vinegar — believed to kill the infection — was placed in exchange for food and medicine. It stands today as a testament to the integrity of the Eyam villagers who chose to endure the plaque rather than selfishly go about their own wishes and lifestyle. It also reminds us of the generosity and compassion of the area farmers who brought vegetables and other food for the villagers and kept those who did survive the plague fed for 14 months.

I remember walking through the cemetery and reading the tombstones. All the great battles of England, its history … and its legacy … nothing stirred my heart more than the courage of the residents of Eyam.

Today, we are staving back the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus 2019. The similarities to the plague of 1665 are heart-wrenching and overwhelming. Our officials have asked us to adhere to health preventions such as staying home and when we do have to go out to self-distance.

Will we, as the residents of Eyam did, take the high road and do things that will keep not only our families and ourselves safe, but also our community, country and world safe and healthy? History can teach us a great deal. The choice is ours.

“Casting all care upon Him, for He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7

I could not complete this article without sharing something that I share at the end of every funeral service that I am honored to speak at. It is this: “You can’t get ready. You’ve got to be ready.”

None of us knows when our last day of earth will be. After nearly 20 years of working as the chaplain in the emergency room, hospital and nursing home, I am certain that God alone is the giver and taker of life. We never know what the day will bring. Do you believe? Have you confessed Christ as Lord? Have you repented? Have you been baptized and risen to walk in a new life?

We can’t get ready. We’ve got to be ready.

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Ila McClenahan is a retired chaplain and activity director living north of Havre in the Amos Community where she was raised. She spends her time speaking for Christian events, volunteering for community organizations, and chauffeuring grandkids.