Letter recounting Mother's last illness and death (page 8); Tody's 'glorified look' and the Sunday after dinner
Book 1, Page 146 ·1874
Transcription
A two-page handwritten spread continuing the prior letter. The left page is numbered 8 at the top center. The right page carries a band of perpendicular cross-writing along its upper edge.
Left page (8)
felt when
whathe saw, ^a look on Mother’s face yesterday — that it excited in him a feeling nothing had ever before brought to him, & that it could only be expressed as a “glorified” look. — He told me not to speak of it — & a few moments after, when we were all together, Tody expressed in a different way, the same thing, & told Mary he had seen the same look on Sam’s face, — except that Sam had not a smile — while Mother’s was perfect. No matter how physical it may be, the illusion was complete, & Tody said was so happy a belief for us to have that it was typical of the joy of her spiritual nature
Right page
[Cross-writing along the upper margin, written perpendicular to the main text:]
me was, she wanted — she always showed it. If you did not see her meaning you could tell from her face that you had not satisfied [her]
The main body, written in the usual horizontal direction:
I have never told you particularly about her taking leave of us. I hoped Kate would be able to do it, & to tell you of the sort of conversation that she had with Mother afterwards. It was so much more in looks, & broken words, or sentences, that she feels as if she could not give you the true idea I suppose, & she is so constantly exerting herself now to help in housekeeping, or in making home cheerful, & as it used to be, that the time for writing does not seem to come — It was on the Sunday after dinner, & when Tody asked if she thought she could not stay with us any longer, & she signed assent & he told her, he would be satisfied then, if she thought it was right, she raised one hand & drew us
AI Notes
Two facing handwritten pages continuing the long letter on Mother’s death — part of the 1874 Barker family death cluster. The dying ‘Mother’ is Ellen Milliken Barker (1807-1874); the writer is her daughter Susan Milliken Barker; the addressee is her sister Ellen Milliken Barker Porcher; ‘Tody’ is Theodore Gaillard Barker (the cursive ‘d’ is unmistakable). The left page is numbered ‘8’ at the top. Continuing the description of Wm.'s touching response (from p145), the writer reports that he expressed his feeling on seeing ‘a look on Mother’s face yesterday’ — the writer originally wrote ‘what he saw’ but struck it through and inserted ‘^a look’ interlinearly. The look excited in him a feeling nothing had ever brought before, and could only be expressed as a ‘glorified’ look. He asked her not to speak of it. A few moments later, Tody (Theodore Gaillard Barker) in conversation said the same thing in a different way, telling Mary (the writer’s sister or relation) that he had seen the same look on little Sam’s face (the dying child, the recipient’s son, who died earlier in 1874 — see p137, p142) — except that Sam had not a smile, while Mother’s was perfect. Tody concluded it was a happy belief that this look was typical of the joy of her spiritual nature. The right page describes the Sunday after dinner when Tody asked Mother if she could not stay with them any longer — she signed assent, and he told her he would be satisfied then, if she thought it was right; she raised one hand and drew them down [continued]. The page carries a band of cross-written (perpendicular) text in the upper right margin. The top of the left page carries a strikethrough+caret editorial structure ‘[strike: what] he saw, ^a look’. The cross-writing is a separate thought-fragment about Mother’s communication via facial expression (‘she always showed it … if you did not see her meaning you could tell from her face that you had not satisfied [her]’). Letter continues.
Letter continues on next page.