There's just something about August

...That seems to ensure I fall ill during some part, or all of, the month each year.

The causes and culprits are often different (or at least a bit variable from year-to-year), but after being quite sick with a bad flare-up of one of my GI conditions for nearly two weeks straight now, I woke up this morning and was struck my how many Augusts pasts I've been in a similar boat (which might be a coincidence, but worth noting nevertheless).

Interestingly, my next thought (and please don't read anything morbid or foretelling into this, I'm not implying such) was how, in a roundabout way, that reminds me of an interesting point I discovered quite early on in my life as a family genealogist. It seems, I found, that when adding names and dates of death to my tree, if the person was middle aged or older, and lived prior to about 100 years ago, there was an exceedingly high chance they passed away during the winter.

At first I thought this much just be a bit of a string of coincidental dates of death, but time and time again, with names (from various bloodlines and folks hailing from different areas of Europe and North America) spanning centuries back, it became very obvious that that a much larger percentage of people passed away during the winter than throughout the rest of the year.

I've tried researching this point to see if others have noticed in their own trees, too, but haven't yet found too much out there on the topic. Of course not everyone in my tree perished at the first sign of snow, but if we think back to the world as it was two or three (or more) hundred years ago, it makes sense that those who might have already been weakened by illness or age succumbed during the coldest, roughest months of the year (when, to boot, their diet was often less healthy and/or plentiful than during the warmer seasons).

Extreme temperatures, no matter which side of the scale they fall on, can be hard on even the most rugged, healthy, and able-bodied amongst us, and are certainly trying on many with weak immune systems and/or serious health problems.

For those who are curious, I noticed that the season in which one passes away has become more varied (at least within my own family tree) over the past hundred to a hundred and twenty-five years ago, no doubt a point that coincides with advances in medicine, as well with other improvements (better indoor heating systems, plumbing, etc) that society has undergone in recent years.

There are many, many beautiful elements of summer and August that I adore, some of which you've certainly seen me wax poetically about in posts here over the years, but the fact that August tends to me I'll put out of commission for a hefty chunk of it, is not one I'm keen to sing praises about!




{Beautiful flowers, bright days, outdoor excursions, warm weather fashions – all points to adore about August. It’s odd propensity to make feel ill, not so much! Vintage 1940s Woman and Home magazine cover via totallymystified on Flickr.}


Oh well, it's Friday, and I’m hoping (though I strongly suspect it's a pipedream this week) that I might wake up feeling oodles better tomorrow and be up for some garage saling this weekend. That sure would be great, as I haven't gotten to nearly as many over the last two months as we did throughout May and June, and I’ve have been missing it fiercely.

Today though, I'll just ride out another day of feeling less than stellar, enjoy the sunshine that's flooding through the window, and look forward rather eagerly to September's return!