"Was the Life of These Worth Living?"

As we visit the Amesdale Cemetery, this question posed many years ago by Andy Clement, may cross our minds. The question, Andy asks, is beautifully answered as he writes:

“The little cemetery at Amesdale is one of many scattered about the North. It is typical of those to be found, if indeed they can be located, in small homestead settlements which began dying as soon as they started”

“And we ask ourselves, ‘Was the life of these worth living?’”

“When you see the hard-won earth going back to nature, the trees growing into the roads which had been made by a team and a scraper in the flies and heat, and the crumbling homes soon to be hidden behind a new forest, we must surely say, ‘No, ‘Twas all in vain!’ ”

“Such was not the case. The weak and disenchanted had come and soon left. The precious few who remained and who are interred in this little plot had their share of happiness. One should not mourn the lives of the pioneer as being in vain because they worked hard and died poor. Indeed at the hour of death we are all poor. The homesteader had an advantage in that everything he did from his prayers to his labour touched close upon his family and himself. Their expectations were few and humble and they learned to find joy in simple things.”

Andy’s words “Everything he did from his prayers to his labour touched close upon his family” still ring true.

Indeed, their labours and prayers, were on our behalf. May we always remember them. May we never forget that we were the very objects of their love, hope, and sacrifice. Our lives are the evidence that their lives of struggle and sacrifice 'Twas not in vain!'