How much more?

I have to wonder how much more one community can take. There are probably less than 150 people living on the small Island where I grew up. In the past 8 months, there have been 10 people who have died. Some were older and it was expected but some were the ones where people say "Oh my goodness! I just saw him/her yesterday and they were telling me how well they were doing!"

Thats exactly what happened yesterday. A guy was in the local store...there is a seat down back for the men to hang out and talk...and a friend of his noticed something was wrong. One side of the guys face was starting to droop. With no clinic/hospital on the Island, he took him home and before he got him inside, he died. :( Another loss. The tenth. This guy was in his mid 60s so he was definately not old. One girl on the Island just lost an uncle 2 weeks ago when he was lost at sea...and now she loses a second uncle so quickly.

In a large community, losing 10 people isn't a huge deal...but a small community like this one...that is almost 1/10th of the population. And the people are so connected. People don't often move onto the Island...it is a very isolated existance, so you know people for all of their or your life. We are talking about an Island that has 3 miles of road. A place that is accessable only by a small, 10 (small) car ferry that runs from 6 am (IF you call and let the captain know you need an "early trip) to 7pm (if you call to request a late trip earlier in the day...wait until later in the day and you are stuck on the larger Island.) Making 6 scheduled trips each day... A place that has no bank, no restaurant, no "nightlife" unless you are talking about the natural night life like bats, raccoons and such.

An Island that has a small Convenience store and a small post office. A school from K to 6 and then the kids are ferried to the larger Island to finish their school years. A place with no RCMP, but make no mistake...if you start causing trouble for people, it WILL be dealt with in one way or another. There is one church-- Baptist. There are no dangerous animals...except humans of course. There are no bears, wolves, coyotes, skunks, porcupines, moose...(there are deer but they are small due to the size of the Island and the need to be small to survive with a small amount of food)

It is a wonderful experience to grow up there feeling safe and secure. It is one of those places were it really does have a whole village raising a child because people do look after each others children. Which is why this hurts so much to lose another person. I grew up knowing each of these 10 people who have died in such a short time. I babysat for some and some of them babysat me. I saw them in church or at the store...or both. I saw them at school functions...got rides with some of them when I was walking somewhere, ate at their houses, slept at their places overnight, played with their children...and have been saying Goodbye way too often lately.