The White Queen of Okoyong: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and FaithLivingstone, W. P. (William Pringle)
Religion
The White Queen of Okoyong: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism and Faith
Livingstone, W. P. (William Pringle)
Missionaries -- Nigeria -- Biography; Slessor, Mary Mitchell, 1848-1915; Women missionaries -- Biography
Once more she voyaged down the Cross River to Duke Town, and there she
was buried on the Mission hill, all Calabar, young and old, turning out
to line the streets and show their deep sorrow. At the head of the grave
sat old Mammy Fuller, a coloured woman from Jamaica, a faithful servant
of the Mission, who had welcomed Ma when she first arrived, a
bright-eyed happy girl, thirty-nine years before, and had loved her ever
since. Ma had been fond of her too, and said it was she who ought to
have had the Royal Cross.
"Do not cry," said Mammy to the women who began to wail. "Praise God
from whom all blessings flow."
There was sadness in many a little heart when the news went across the
ocean that Ma was no more. Ratcliffe missed the letters that used to
flash like rays of sunshine into his quiet life. What of that wonderful
secret which he had kept so closely locked up in his heart? He was told
that it was all right now, and that there would be no harm in telling
what it was. It turned out to be very simple, like many bigger mysteries
and secrets. Ma and he had agreed to pray every day that he might get
better and be able to walk, and he was to be good and always do his
best.
Ratcliffe has never forgotten that compact he made with Ma. He remembers
well how she loved him and prayed for him, and he believes that her
prayers will be answered. He is now in Liverpool attending a school, and
can go about on crutches with greater ease--sometimes for two and three
hours at a time. He can also use his tricycle better, and enjoys a three
or four-mile ride.
Christine, too, mourned for the loving friend she had never seen, and as
she remembered the black children left motherless and alone she felt
their sorrow and cried their cry, and put it all into the music of a
haunting lament, a beautiful poem, which begins:
She who loved us, she who sought us
Through the wild untrodden bushlands,
Brought us healing, brought us comfort,
Brought the sunlight to our darkness,
She has gone--the dear white Mother--
Gone into the great Hereafter.
Ma's death made her famous. She, who was always hiding herself in life,
was written and talked about and praised everywhere. The story of her
heroism, devotion, and faith made her known and admired in many homes
throughout the world, and so, although she lies in a far-off tropical
land with her hands folded in rest and her lips quiet for ever, she is
still helping and inspiring boys and girls and older people as she did
of old.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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