BRUNKEBERG CHURCHYARD:

Jon brushed snow from the marker of his grandfather's grave. Even after the passage of three years, he missed Old Halvor as deeply as ever. "Are you here, Farfar?" the nineteen-year-old murmured. "Are you waiting to take Bright Birgit home?"

The thought gave him some comfort. He heaved a long breath that misted on the air, turned away, went to join his family around a new grave.

Death had struck once more at Homme farm. His sister Birgit, three years older than he, had passed away after a long mysterious illness. Purplish spots dappled her legs, her gums bled, her eyes had grown sunken. Her bowels couldn't seem to hold her food, and her muscles ached all the time. Bright Birgit had kept up her spirits until the morning her first fingernail fell off. "What is the matter with me?" she had wept.

The doctor didn't know. Many other folks in the parish had died over the last decade with similar symptoms, most of them babes or elderly, but far too many young women as well. The doctor had sent a query off to Kristiania, but no answer had yet arrived.

"Farewell, dear Bitte," Jon whispered.

His older sister Liv squeezed his hand. Their parents, Torjus and Tone, stood beside the new grave, along with big brother Halvor Lamefoot and their teenage brothers Sveinung and Steinar.

The priest intoned his final blessing. Jon hardly heard a word.

The wind whisked up a flurry of ground snow and sprinkled it over the the dark splotch of dirt, like the ashes of grief that settled over Homme lands.

.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The Vitamin C deficiency known as scurvy wasn't well understood until the 1900's.

New readers: This is the 81st chapter in this family saga, set in Telemark, Norway, dramatizing the lives of my ancestors, 1701-1843.  There are 40 more chapters yet to add in here.

I ran a word count recently on the whole book, and it's around 60,000 words -- almost long enough for a full-fledged novel! I wrote this years ago. Now I'm taking a couple more years to review and revise and polish, a chapter a week. Finding too much telling and not enough showing. Sometimes rewriting entire chapters.