CHAPTER XVI
LAST DAYS AND DEATH—IN MEMORIAM
(1891-1892)
THE golden wedding was to be almost the last gleam of brightness and happiness that came to the home of Mr. Field. It was in March, 1890, that his children had been told that any sudden excitement might end his life, and in April, 1891, they realized that their mother’s illness must soon come to a fatal termination. Both father and mother were watched with eager solicitude throughout the summer of 1891.
The family dined together for the last time on the 28th of August in that year—Mrs. Field’s birthday—and her brother-in-law, Mr. David Dudley Field, proposed her health and gave this toast:
“Mary Stone Field, the wife of Cyrus W. Field, the mother of seven children and of sixteen grandchildren, a perfect wife, a perfect mother, a perfect grandmother. God bless her.”
It was on the 23d of November that Mrs. Field died. An old friend writes of the married life thus ended:
“Oh, what a family theirs was—so loving, considerate, and true! How many hearts must be full of gratitude to them and all their benevolence! For theirs was true charity ‘that vaunteth not itself,’ not letting the left hand know what the right hand doeth.”
And of her the Rev. Dr. Arthur Brooks wrote in The Churchman:
“Mrs. Cyrus W. Field was one whose death has been felt as a great loss in New York City. By those who have shared her gracious, kindly, and intelligent hospitality she will never be forgotten.