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Feb. 18-24
Raining hard all day Sunday. Little Eliza was buried on Monday. No one here but Mr. Meade and a few other gentlemen. Write to brother Peter on business this week.
"Disasters come not singly but as if they watched and waited, scanning one another's notions; when the first descends the others follow, follow, gathering, flocking round their victim sick and wounded. First a shadow then a sorrow till the air is dark with anguish."
Such seems to be true of our household. On Friday night at about ten o'clock, the 23rd of Feb., my dear Mammy Eliza was taken from us. Her death was very sudden. I had spent the evening with her and Daddy in the dining room and thought she had been unusually cheerful. I left her about nine o'clock and after getting to bed an hour later heard such a stir in the house that I got up and went down to the chamber and found her a disfigured corpse. Daddy and Mary Lewis were standing by her, begging her to speak but it was all over. The spirit had returned to God who gave it. The voice was hushed and the life gone. Daddy said she had gone to bed quite well but soon jumped up and complained of a feeling of suffocation; had gone to the out door to get some fresh air but in a few moments sat down and said she believed she was dying and never spoke again. When Mary Lewis got to her she was dead. We rubbed her with different things, put her feet in hot water and Daddy bled her but could only get a few drops of blood. Dr. Nelson came in about two hours but he said we could have done nothing for her for she had heart disease and he knew she would die suddenly though he did not think it would be so soon. Well, I believe she was ready to go and it is all well with her now but it would have been consoling to those she left behind to know her last wishes but God knows best and we must all feel that our loss is her gain for her troubles were many and very grievous to be bourn and yet how meek and uncomplaining she was under them all. She is now at rest with those who have gone before in that house of many mansions and may this sudden warning not fall on us unheeded [but] reminding us to be also ready, "For what hour ye know not the Son of Man cometh." Poor Daddy seems crushed and I can't wonder at it for a more devoted wife a man never had. May this heavy blow prove a message from God to him causing him to consider his ways and to turn unto the Lord God with all his heart. This is a mysterious Providence. The Stay and Prop of a whole family taken and so many entirely dependent on her left but God's ways are not our ways and we must believe it was all done in kindness. Poor Nannie. How bitter must be her grief. May God help her. Ours is a sorrowing household now. A desolate hearthstone. The children all feel their loss much but it is heavier on little Dick and Ellen, they being the youngest of the flock. Ma stands it bravely but she feels that her earthly sojourn cannot be much longer when she will join the Loved and Lost. Mammy Eliza was in her 51st year being 50 years old the 23rd of last August. Our neighbors are very kind; stay with us and do all in their power to help us. Cousin Isabella, Cousin Ann Watson and Sarah get to us early Saturday and are such comforts to us all. John Mac also gets home Saturday morning. He knew nothing of the trouble that had befallen us until he got to the house.
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