Any use of this material except for historical research is prohibited.

Index to the Historical Documents on OSN:    http://ourspecial.net/refindex/

Names on this Page:

Page indexing under construction

Locations on this Page:

Errors in indexing, and addenda are expected... and corrections, additions can be added to our notes page.

This is a research platform, and your input (corrections, additions, comments, etc.) is highly welcome.

Please provide references/links if appropriate!

Email Corrections, Addenda, etc. to us at  OSN anti-spam powered by

Our Special Net  Gean-ealogy.com   OSN Weather  OSN Search  OSN Images/Gean

Memories of a Long Life                                            13

Chapter Five

 

FAMILY AFFLICTIONS

 

             I visited Mrs. Edwards, a widow, who had six children and was a dear, good woman.  She told me whenever I came to Raleigh to come to her house and make it my home.  Well, I did.  Her oldest son, C. B., the head or chief man of the Biblical Recorder office; the second son, W. J., lived in Oxford; then two sisters, Bettie and Ida.  We were classmates, and loved each almost as sisters.  Well, Bettie was taken sick, I was sent for, I went and she did not want me to leave.  I spent about three weeks.  She did not want me to leave, saying that she felt she was going to die and that she did not want anyone but me to wash and dress her, and she told me what she wanted me to put on her.  I never left her long at a time, just to take a nap and eat.  She seemed so happy, it was good to be there.  I was holding her hand, her brother, W.J., seemed so devoted to her, and as he saw she was most gone, he just dropped on his knees by her bed and cried out, “Bettie, Bettie, speak one more work, and to me.”  It seemed as if I saw her spirit go upward as she said “At Home.”  I felt she had entered Heaven, the gloryland.  After I had her dressed for her long sweet sleep, I went into another room to bathe my face.  Ida came in, put her arms around me with her head on my shoulders, and with tears in her eyes said, “You be my sister, I’ve no other but you.”  Well, the brother that knelt by Bettie and saw her breathe her last lived about ten years, and had a wife and three little girls.  His wife sent for me, and I was by his bed when he died.  I wrote some verses in memory of Bettie:

 

Lines in Memory of Miss Bettie Edwards.  Dedicated to her Mother,

Sister and Brothers, by a Classmate.

My dear, loved Bettie, and can it be

That thou art gone to thy home on high.

Thy face, thy form, no more shall we see

Till we join thee above the bright blue sky?

Sweet converse now we’ll hold no more,

No earth bright flowers for us will bloom,

For many hearts are sad and sore

Since thou art laid in thy quiet tomb.

Sad is the mother you loved so well,

Thy brothers dear, by sorrow riven,

Thy sister’s heart with grief doth swell,

But, blessed thought, we’ll meet in heaven.