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"Thy Will be done."
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THE LATE MRS. GEORGE EDWARDS.
Had she lived until June 21st of that year we should have been together for forty years. We shared our joys and bore our sorrows together. Hers had been a lonely life, but she made the sacrifice for the Cause in which she was as deeply interested as I was myself. This shows the noble spirit of the woman and endeared her the more to me. No one can tell the lonely life the wife of a public man has to live, but she never complained.
She was always anxious to help me, and if she thought I was in any way depressed and disappointed she would cheer me up with kind words and press me on with my work. In fact, our lives had become one. That made the blow the heavier. I felt I had lost part of myself. In any case I had lost a good helpmate, and a chair became vacant that could never again be filled.
When my wife was laid to rest, then the effects of the loss fell on me with full force. Three weeks of anxious watching and the twelve months thought and care I had with her and the worry of the crisis the Union was passing through had told upon me. This caused me to have a serious nervous breakdown, and I felt sure the day was not far distant when I should have to lay down the cares of a responsible official life. I had, however, a most sympathetic Executive who did all they could to help me, and with their help I pushed forward. The Union made rapid progress. We extended our borders. We had a pressing invitation to open up a campaign in Lancashire, and during the summer and winter I addressed several meetings and opened up several branches in Lancashire. By the end of the year we had several hundred members in that county, and I see by the report which I presented to the General Council meeting held at Fakenham on Saturday February 8, 1913, that we had made more progress than at any time since the Union was inaugurated and had saved £138 18s. 9½d. The Council meeting was a very successful one. I again set to work with great earnestness, but with impaired health and broken spirit.