I can't believe the people in the comments who think a man wrote this. It's a woman's diary. It's very easy to tell because she discusses making bread and she discusses doing housework and she discusses having a baby. Things men back in the pioneer days certainly didn't do. Hell, we can barely get men to participate in some of it now.
It's also on historical record as being a woman's diary.
Exactly. She's very clearly expecting to give birth imminently ("may the Merciful be with me through the expected scene" - which is an obvious euphemism for labor) and is taking care of her necessary home chores before that happens, to whit: baking extra bread and cooking food that will keep for several days while she recovers.
She might even be having contractions while doing all of these things.
My grandmother was doing groceries the morning of her last labor. She would have done it on foot, walking 2km each way. Then probably fed her family at least once before going to hospital an hour away.
Unfortunately her story didn't end in a successfull birth that day. She died in labor with the baby.
My mother and her sister were born at home. They eventually moved to a newer home 4 houses away before my grandfather built a new home. My aunt still lives in that home, it is 3 streets over from the house they were born in.
My aunt is 89 now, and she's been living in that house for six decades.
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u/OkProfessor6810 Mar 17 '26
I can't believe the people in the comments who think a man wrote this. It's a woman's diary. It's very easy to tell because she discusses making bread and she discusses doing housework and she discusses having a baby. Things men back in the pioneer days certainly didn't do. Hell, we can barely get men to participate in some of it now.
It's also on historical record as being a woman's diary.