Handwritten letter: recollections of Mother's last illness (pages 4-5)
Book 1, Page 138 ·1874
Transcription
A handwritten letter spread, showing pages 4 (left) and 5 (right). The page numbers 4 and 5 are visible at the tops of the two leaves.
Page 4 (left)
4
God to take me, & it is not wrong in me" — I am not perfectly sure about days, because her remedies were given so continually & the nursing was so necessary, & oh! Sis you know how easy it was to forget other things in the thought that she was going. — She asked me several times from Wednesday night to Friday “am I getting on” or “the Drs think I am getting on” “I am doing very well” — But after that she did not ask those questions. — She was troubled & anxious to talk to us, I am sure, during Friday & Saturday & Sunday, until it was done on Sunday evening, & after that we all noticed that she was calm & quiet in her mind — I am sure she often prayed, & I longed so inexpressibly to say the prayers
Page 5 (right)
5
for her, but she had so little disease & so much strength that the Doctors felt she might be saved, & advised us to keep the idea in her mind if possible — & as I knew she did not need the prayers except as a solace, & that ministers themselves considered it wrong in particular cases to excite emotion I just waited. — On Monday Louisa King told Tody that she was sure that Mother would like Mr. Johnson to come to her. So Tody went to Mother & told her that if it would be any comfort to her he would bring Mr. Johnson, & she could tell him what had troubled her mind about it being right for her to wish to go. — He begged Mother not to think of Mr. Johnson’s visit as a farewell because the Doctors were still hopeful of her — Mother’s answer was clear, that she would like to see him,
AI Notes
Pages 4 and 5 of the multi-page handwritten letter that began on page 136 — part of the 1874 Barker family death cluster. The dying ‘Mother’ is Ellen Milliken Barker (1807-1874); the writer is most likely her daughter Susan Milliken Barker; ‘Tody’ is her brother Theodore Gaillard Barker. The writer continues her account of Mother’s final days: her own uncertainty about the timing of events (because Mother’s remedies were given so continually); Mother’s repeated questions from Wednesday night to Friday about whether she was ‘getting on’; her troubled, anxious mood through Friday/Saturday/Sunday until ‘it was done on Sunday evening’; the family’s reluctance to say prayers aloud because the doctors were still hopeful and ministers warned against exciting emotion in dying patients; and finally Louisa King’s suggestion on Monday that Mr. Johnson the minister should be called. Tody (Theodore Gaillard Barker) goes to Mother and offers to bring Mr. Johnson, framing it as a comfort and not a farewell because the doctors were still hopeful. Page numbers ‘4’ and ‘5’ are visible at the tops of the two leaves. Letter continues on p139.
Letter continues on next page.