Robert Baldwin, one of the fathers of democracy in...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Robert Baldwin, one of the fathers of democracy in Canada, spent years mourning the loss of his wife Eliza, who had died due to complications from a cesarean birth. He became obsessed with her death, turning her bedroom into a chapel, and bringing her letters with him everywhere he went (in case he’d die away from home). When Baldwin passed away, he requested that his coffin be chained to Eliza’s, and all her letters be buried with his body. A month after his death, it was discovered that he’d wished deeply to share the scars of his dead wife, and asked that an incision be made into the cavity of the abdomen extending through the two upper thirds of the linea alba, giving him a “cesarean” of his own. And so, a month after his interment, Baldwin’s body was dug up again by his son, brother-in-law, and a Dr. Richardson, and the surgery was given to the dead body.