Your most kind letter telling me of your sympathy, and quoting my mother’s own words about Death, and beyond Death, is among the first which I answer. I have wanted to write and thank you so much for it.
And yet how very much we have to be thankful for! Such memories of a noble and honoured life, prolonged among us in fulness of sympathy for so many blessed years,[[129]] and now to pass before us into the new life, full of faith and surrounded by all who loved her.
HER MOTHER’S DEATH
The loss to us is very great, but it is so because of the greatness of the blessing we have had. We must try to live not unworthy of our traditions, and to bear well the sorrow sent us to bear. The great kindness of friends is at once a summons and a strength.
February 22nd, 1903.
To Miss Margaret Shaen.
I know you would feel Mr. Litchfield’s[[130]] death. Those who are associated with those we love, and who have gone before us, always catch some of their light; and Mr. Litchfield’s true sympathy with all that was good, and his faithful and conscientious help, always made him feel “one of us,” as our tenants say, tho’ of late years I saw little of him.
My dear mother kept her full sympathy in all things to the last; her marvellous vitality never flagged; we were all with her. She just lived to see her eldest grandchild, Blanche, engaged. Life was full, bright, and crowned with love and hope to the end. Now Elinor, too, our youngest niece, is engaged; and it seems like a trumpet call to come back to life, and even to their joy; and one feels one must not lose heart or hope, tho’ all life seems so changed.
April 29th, 1903.
To Mr. Wm. Blyth.