Transcript
Precincts. May 25th.
My dearest Mrs Wood,
Each day I have been wishing to thank you for your loving words of sympathy with our loss, & with my loved & honored Father’s gain. Who that knew him truly could fail to praise & bless our gracious Father for having called him into his immediate presence, indeed my thoughts seem for ever to dwell on his joy; I feel it must be so intense with the Saviour he so loved & all the loved spirits gone before with whom his was so perfectly in harmony. I am indeed thrice blessed in the love of such a Father & while the flesh & the heart grieve because of our weakness it is so happy to think of him now. & to see him beckoning us to follow into our true home. I quite realize the orphan feeling now the last link is broken, but we are not less a family because some are “gathered in” These are sad sad days & weeks dismantling the old home, so many & varied feelings arise in the 12 hours. I am staying on a little trying to do my part, & because I could not find it in my heart to leave poor Mrs R. while she needed me, She is familiarized with my presence having been with her in the earliest burst of her grief. that was a cold chilly early dawn on the 13th from two oC. till sunrise. but two that wept together then are fit to sojourn together yet a few weeks longer. Never did death touch more lightly, & tenderly any child of man, as if indeed he had no victory there. It was life not death that reigned on his face. & I was fain to say in my heart “Thanks be to God”—
I do indeed feel for Esther—I wish she could have looked on his dear face once again in life or in death, I think it would have robbed the King of terrors of the sway he has over our weak minds! I long to fly over to Esther at once—but I have a little work for others that must be finished first & if all be well August will be a sweet restful month for me. Glad indeed shall I be to see you in Town if we can so arrange it. I have rejoiced silently in your own recovery, & in your work for dear Margaret’s restoration last winter. I have been so blessed in recovering my strength before this trial of it came upon me, I should have been so useless to everybody a year ago.
I was threatened with a severe illness to my Ret {1} last week & we were very fearful for 24 hours—but that too was averted
How good God is to us.
My best love to you | Ever yours very lovingly
Mary Lightfoot
My kind love to Julia please
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{1} Reading uncertain.