Last Day for Taxes - Also, the Little Boy of the Titanic

Ah, the tax season officially ends today.  I go into work at 1 PM and work until 9 PM, but then it's all done, except for some mopping up through the rest of the month.

I'm tired!  I must get ready, but first a cigar in the spring-like weather in my backyard, where the lawn is a brilliant green and the persimmon tree is filled with new, yellow-green foliage.

One hundred years ago today the Mackay-Bennett funeral ship set sail for the site of the Titanic's sinking.  It arrived at the scene early in the morning of April 20.  The sailors, looking over the side, were appalled at what they saw:  dozens of bodies, bobbing about in the waves, upright in their white life vests, heads bowed in death.  Then began the grim task of recovering the bodies. 337 were found, 309 by the Mackay-Bennett.    One was a two year old boy.

The Mackay-Bennett sailors were deeply touched by the recovery of the little boy's body.  They took up a collection among themselves and the public, and gave him a grand funeral in Nova Scotia.  He was buried beneath a large grave marker (right).  In a sense, his grave marker became a monument to all of the children who died on the Titanic.  He was one of only three children whose bodies were recovered, and his little shoes were kept as an artifact of the Titanic.

The child's identity was finally made known more than 90 years later, thanks to modern  DNA analysis. The little boy --  Sidney Leslie Goodwin, of England -- is unknown no longer.

 Sidney Leslie Goodwin