This post includes a contest to win a free book! Just share your thoughts about the question posed at the end and you are entered in the contest.

Read on and enjoy a little musical accompaniment, if you like.

In August 1911, photographer Lewis Wickes Hines was indignantly photographing children who worked with dangerous equipment. One day, he was at a canning factory in Eastport, Maine when an 8-year-old Syrian girl named Phoebe Thomas began to scream. The end of her thumb was nearly severed by her machine.

Wickes Hine witnessed the difficult efforts to stem the blood flow. When at last it was under control, Phoebe was sent home for the rest of the day. Her mother worked at the factory too but she could not be spared. The girl walked home alone despite losing an alarming amount of blood.

Dumbfounded, the photographer captured the child’s image as she hurried home with blood running down her arm and hand.

Wickes Hine took another photograph of Phoebe, a little while after the accident. She is wearing a clean dress.

Phoebe’s thumb, pictures a week after the accident. She was back at the factory that day, using the same big knife.

The photographer found that such wounds were common. Shortly after Phoebe’s accident, he talked to 8-year-old Ralph, another cutter in the canning factory.

He photographed the boy holding a butcher knife and modeling a badly cut finger, and noted, “Several children working with him had cut fingers, and even the adults said they could not help cutting themselves. August 1911.”

He photographed Richard Mills, 8 years old, displaying a severely cut finger here.

7-year-old Byron told Wickes Hines matter-of-factly, “I cut my finger off, cutting sardines the other day.”

Most people here are familiar with Lewis Wickes Hines but if you’ve never seen his pictures of the tenements and terrible living conditions from the turn of the century, check them out. Wickes Hines was a social reformer and he was infuriated by what he saw. In addition to the pain of seeing a hurt child, he raged that society considered it normal for a family to depend on the wages of an 8-year-old child working with dangerous equipment to keep starvation at bay. That is certainly where Wickes Hines wanted the focus to be.

I have a different question for you. When a child was unexpectedly hurt in these situations—even grievously injured—they returned to work as soon as possible. Even when faced with the tragedy of the death of a loved one, children were soon found toiling away.

There was no therapist, no grief counselor, no medicines, and no time to reflect on the terrific blow that had befallen them. It wasn’t acceptable to dwell on it. Children and adults had to carry on. Amazingly, there are few (if any) accounts from this time of emotional pain disfiguring a child’s soul, of people becoming twisted and bitter, and developing neuroses about traumatic experiences. Possibly they forgot it.

They had to carry on so they did.

This isn’t a plea to send 8 years olds back to work in canneries, of course. I’m considering how children handle an unexpected physical or emotional blow, versus older people. You could look at it a thousand different ways: How the poor go on versus the rich. Introverts vs extroverts. There is a vast spectrum of how people absorb and process pain, some healthier than others.

I have some reservations. I don’t know if it’s possible to overcome your nature. Some people are resilient, some are not. Some people may be unable to accept good, rational guidance. Nevertheless, let’s have a look.

What is the best way for a person to deal with a sudden emotional or physical catastrophe?

Write your answer in the comments. Let’s make it interesting and have a contest! The winning comment will be determined on Friday afternoon by the number of likes from the group. The prize is a free book.

– If you’re in the US, you can choose a paperback of the expanded Cold Heart or a Grievous Deeds audiobook

– If you’re bit in the US, you can have the Grievous Deeds audiobook from the UK or the US Audible store.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts! I’m behind on responding to comments since I haven’t been on my computer but thank you for leaving them and I will respond soon!

I’m traveling this week but will post when possible!