Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-11-24
From the Knickerbocker.l
The Dying Wife to her Husband.

The Dying wife to her Hnsband.
The following most touching frag-
ment of Letter from Dying Wife
to her Husband. was found by him some
months after her death, between the
leaves of a religious volume which she
was very fond of perusing. The letter,
which was literally dim with tear marks,
was written long before the husband
was aware that the grasp of fatal dis
ease had fastened upon the lovely form
of his wife, who died at the early age of
nineteen.
"When this shall reach your eye,
dear G., some day when you are
turning over the relics of the past, 1
shall have passed away for ever, and
the old white stone will be keeping its
lonely watch over the lips you have so
fondly pressed, and the sod will be
growing green that shall hide forever
from your sight the dust of one who has
so often nestled close to your warm
heart. For many long and sleepless
nights, when all my thoughts are at
rest, l have wrestled with the conscious
ness of the approaching death, and at
last it has forced itself upon my mind !;
and although to you and others it might
now seem but the nervous imaginations
of girl, yet, dear G. it is not so.
"Many merry hours have passed in
the endeayor to reconcile myself to
leaving you whom love so well, and
this bright world of sunshine and
beauty; and hard indeed it is to strug-
gle on silently and alone with the sure
conviction that 1 am about to leave all
for ever, and go down alone into the
dark valley! But l know in whom l
have trusted, and, leaning upon His
arm, fear no evil Don't blame me
for keeping even all this from you
How could subject you of all others, to
snch sorrow as feel at parting, when
time will soon make it apparent to you?
l could have wished to live, if only to
be at your side when your time shall
come, and pillowing your head upon my
breast, wipe the death-damp from your
brow, and usher your departing spirit
into its Makers presence, embalmed in
woman's holiest prayer. But it is not
to be so-and l submit. Yours is the
privilege of watching, through long
and dreary nights for the spirits final
flight, and of transferring my sinking
head from your breast to my Savior's
bosom! And you shall share my last
thought; the last faint pressure of the
hand, and the last feeble kiss shall be
yours; and even when flesh and heart
shall have failed me, my eye shall rest
on yours until glazed by death; and
our spirit shall hold one last fond COM
munion, until gently fading from my
view,-the last of earth,-you shall
mingle with the unfading glories of that
better world where partings are un-
known.
"Well do 1 know the spot, dear
g., where you will leave me:
often have we stood by the place, and
as we watched the mellow sunset as it
glanced in quivering flashes through
the leaves of FURNISHED gold, each per-
haps has thought that one of us would
come alone; and whichever it might be,
your name would be on the stone. But
we loved the spot; and l know you'll
love it none the less when you see the
same quiet sunlight linger and play
among the grass that grows over your
Mary's grave. l know you'll go often
alone, when 1 am laid there; and my
spirit will be with you then, and whisper
among the waving branches:-1 am
not lost, but gone before"