Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
History
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Women heroes
In her last sickness when she found her end approaching, she insisted
on every one leaving the room--it was her wish to die alone. And as
she persisted, so was it, only one nurse standing by the door held
ajar, and watching till she knew by the change of attitude, and a
certain fixed look in the countenance, that Sister Dora had entered
into her rest.[B]
"It was Christmas Eve when she passed away, and a dense fog, like a
funeral pall, hung over the town and obscured every object a few feet
from the ground. Under this strange canopy the market was being held,
and people were busy buying and selling, and making preparations for
the great Christmas festival on the following day; but when the deep
boom of the passing bell announced the melancholy intelligence that
Sister Dora had entered into her rest, a thrill of horror ran through
the people, who, with blanched cheeks and bated breath, whispered,
'Can it be true?' Although for seven weeks the process of dissolution
had been going on before their eyes, they could not realise the fact
that she whom they loved and revered was no more."
The funeral took place on Saturday, the 28th of December. "The day
was dark and dismal, the streets, covered with slush and sludge caused
by the melted snow, were thronged with spectators.... There was
general mourning in the town; and although it was market day nearly
every shop was closed during the time of the funeral, and all the
blinds along the route of the procession were drawn.... On reaching
the cemetery it was found that four other funerals had arrived from
the workhouse; and as these coffins had been taken into the chapel
there was no room for Sister Dora's, which had, consequently, to be
placed in the porch. This was as Sister Dora would have wished, had
she had the ordering of the arrangements, for she always gave
preference to the poor, to whom she was attached in life, and from
whom she would not have desired to be separated in death."
True to her thought of others, in the midst of her last sufferings,
she had made arrangements for a Christmas dinner to be given to a
number of her old patients, in accordance with a custom of hers in
previous years; but on this occasion the festive proceedings were
shorn of their gladness. All thought of her who in her pain and on her
deathbed had thought of them. Every one tried, but ineffectually, to
cheer and comfort the other, but the task was hopeless. One young
lady, after the meal, and while the Christmas tree was being lighted
commenced singing the pretty little piece, "Far Away," but when she
came to the words:
Some are gone from us forever
Longer here they could not stay,
she burst into tears; and the women present sobbed, and tears were
seen stealing down the cheeks of bearded men.
The Walsall writer of "A Review" concludes his paper thus:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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