Home Influence: A Tale for Mothers and DaughtersAguilar, Grace
General
Home Influence: A Tale for Mothers and Daughters
Aguilar, Grace
Domestic fiction; Mothers and daughters -- Fiction
During all these demands upon her time, her thoughts, and her health,
however, the ruling passion neither slumbered nor slept. She completed
the Jewish Faith, and also prepared Home Influence for the press, though
very unfit to have taxed her powers so far. Her medical attendant became
urgent for total change of air and scene, and again strongly interdicted
_all_ mental exertion; a trip to Frankfort, to visit her elder brother,
was therefore decided on. In June, 1847, she set out, and bore the
journey without suffering nearly so much as might have been expected.
Her hopes were high, her spirits raised; the novelty and interest of her
first travels on the Continent gave her, for a very transient period, a
gleam, as it were, of strength. For a week or two she appeared to rally;
then, again, every exertion became too much for her, every stimulating
remedy seemed to exhaust her. She was ordered from Frankfort to try the
baths and mineral waters of Schwalbach, but without success. After a
stay of six weeks, and persevering with exemplary patience in the
treatment prescribed, she was one night seized with alarming convulsive
spasms, so terrible that her family removed her the next morning with
all speed back to Frankfort, to the house of a family of most kind
friends, where every attention and care was lavishly bestowed.
In vain. She took to her bed the very day of her arrival, and never rose
from it again; she became daily weaker, and in three weeks from that
time her sufferings ceased forever. She was perfectly conscious to
within less than two hours before her death, and took an affectionate
leave of her mother and brother. Speech had been a matter of difficulty
for some time previous, her throat being greatly affected by her malady;
but she had, in consequence, learned to use her fingers in the manner of
the deaf and dumb, and almost the last time they moved it was to spell
upon them, feebly, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."
She was buried in the cemetery of Frankfort, one side of which is set
apart for the people of her faith. The stone which marks the spot bears
upon it a butterfly and five stars, emblematic of the soul in heaven,
and beneath appears the inscription,
"Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works
praise her in the gates."--Prov., ch. xxxi., v. 31.
And thus, 16th of September, 1847, at the early age of thirty-one, Grace
Aguilar was laid to rest; the bowl was broken, the silver cord was
loosed. Her life was short, and checkered with pain and anxiety, but she
strove hard to make it useful and valuable, by employing diligently and
faithfully the talents with which she had been endowed. Nor did the
serious view with which she ever regarded earthly existence induce her
to neglect or despise any occasion of enjoyment, advantage, or sociality
which presented itself. Her heart was ever open to receive, her hand to
give.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account