Account of Grandmother's last illness, continuation through Sunday 25th (page 5)
Book 1, Page 51 ·1858-07-18/1858-07-25
Transcription
A single sheet of lined paper closely written in faded brown ink, in cursive.
She was much gratified by Cousin Esther’s coming & afterwards Cousins Robt. & Theodore Gourdin’s. Speaking of their coming so far to see her & saying then as continually, during her sickness “God is so merciful, so merciful to me” — and again, “why is every body so anxious to see me, each one finds something new for my comfort” as though it were a strange thing that she should receive love & devotion at the hands of those to whom her life had been given. — Standing beside her I asked if she was quite comfortable “yes my daughter so happy, so happy” During an interval of ease when her natural cheerfulness returned. — Father said “why Mother there seems nothing for us to do for you now, unless it be to wish 10 years added to your life” “Oh no” was the reply “rather go over if I could live, I might not have all these blessings about me.” Once after suffering a great deal of pain — she turned to those beside her “My children pray for me that my faith fail not” —
Sunday 25th. She was asked if she would like to see the Rev. Mr. Drayton — and said “very much” — during his visit she kept her eyes steadily fixed on his face as though afraid of losing anything that he might say, when
AI Notes
Fifth page of the seven-page account. Records visits from a ‘Cousin Esther’ (not further identified — probably a Gaillard-side relation) and from the Charleston Gourdin cousins Robert and Theodore; Grandmother’s repeated thanks for the unanswerable mercies shown her; the writer’s own bedside exchange (‘yes my daughter so happy, so happy’); and her wish ‘My children pray for me that my faith fail not’. The dated entry for Sunday 25th (i.e. Sunday July 25, 1858) opens a new section in which she receives the Rev. Mr. Drayton, who returns repeatedly through the closing pages 052–053. The text reads ‘Father said why Mother’ (the addressee is Grandmother), ‘rather go over if I could live’ (tentative reading), and ‘Oh no’ and ‘all these blessings about me’ as quoted speech.
Account continues on next page. The dated Sunday 25th is Sunday July 25, 1858 — three weeks before Grandmother’s death on August 13. The Rev. Mr. Drayton — most likely a member of the Drayton family of low-country South Carolina, several of whom served in the Protestant Episcopal ministry in the 1850s — returns through pages 052–053.