Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Containing: A Full Sketch of Her Life: With Various Selections from Her Writings and Letters ...Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
Religion
Memoirs of Mrs. Rebecca Steward, Containing: A Full Sketch of Her Life: With Various Selections from Her Writings and Letters ...
Steward, T. G. (Theophilus Gould)
Steward, Rebecca Gould, Mrs., 1820-1877
So far as I know this is the last letter she ever wrote. On the 11th
of May, Mrs. Felts went home and took charge of her work, while she
gave her time fully to the care of the sick. Every day and every night
she would visit one or the other, often going from one directly to
the other, taking but very little rest. One day she remarked to Mrs.
Felts: "Alice, this is the only time since your marriage that I have
ever wanted you back; when I gave you up, I did so freely and have
never regretted it, and this is the first time I have ever really
needed you since, and now the Lord has arranged it for you to be
here."
On the 16th of May, "Aunt Tamson" (Mrs. Tamson Cuff, her oldest
sister) passed away from earth. At the time of her death mother was
absent; coming to look upon her lifeless form, she talked pleasantly
with those around of the reality and glory of heaven, and came home
singing:
"I know not the hour when my Lord shall come,
To take me away to His own dear home,
But I know that His presence will lighten my gloom;
And that will be glory for me."
Taking off her bonnet, she said: "Alice, attend to the work, I must
indulge myself a little now"; and lying down on the sofa, she wept
freely for some time. She lay there till evening and then rousing
herself, passed the evening in conversation with the daughters of the
deceased. On the next day, May 17th, she worked very hard intending to
spend all the next day with her mother. About 5 o'clock that afternoon
word was brought that _her mother was dead_. Throwing up both hands,
she uttered a wail of horror, such as none had ever heard from her
before, saying quickly: "Oh! My mother gone; and I so selfish as to
be about my work and not with her!" We replied: "But mother you were
preparing to spend to-morrow with her." She added immediately: "I
could have gone to day. It was my selfishness. Mother said she would
die on the 18th and I intended to be with her on that day; but I ought
not to have left her, I ought not to have left her," she repeated.
As quickly as possible she was at her mother's bedside and to her
inexpressible joy found her _still alive_. She had sunk so low that
life was thought extinct, but the Lord had revived her again and she
still lived, and recognized her daughter. She lived through the night
and waited until the sun had sent his first beams to bless the earth
on the 18th, when her happy spirit fled to its eternal home. She had
known it would appear for some days, the day and very hour when she
should go away. It was the same day of the month and the same hour at
which her husband died. Side by side their ashes sleep in the old
family graveyard at Gouldtown, awaiting the clarion call of the
resurrection trump.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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