My Heroes... Margaret Brown Stone

She married Thomas Stone, Esquire, in 1762. As usual, little is known of her. However, in 1787, 25 years after their marriage, she was inoculated with smallpox. Sadly, she died of the disease. Her husband died the same year. They were devoted to each other. They had three children. The son died of yellow fever while studying law. Both daughters survived and married.

So much we take for granted. I think of the oft-expressed lament by others: "I was born in the wrong time." I love history and many things connected with bygone days. However, I never wish I was born in an earlier era. I'm alive for one reason: Penicillin. I was born only a few years after it became widely used in US hospitals. I would have died without it.

I have a smallpox scar on my upper back, above my shoulder, given to me when I was a baby. Inoculations haven't been done since the 70s in most places because the vaccine was causing more smallpox than the actual disease. It only took 200 years. It seems a long time, and yet there's still nothing to prevent the common cold.