Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-07-25
The Dying Wife to her Husband

The following most touching fragment
Ofa g Letter from a Dying Wife to her
Husband, was found byhim some months
after her death between the leaves of a
religious volume, which she was very fond
of perusing. The letter, which was liter
ally dim with tear marks, was written
lnng before the husband was aware that
the grasp of fatal disease had fastened
upon the lovely form of his wife, who died
at the early age of nineteen:
When this shall reach YOUR eye, dear
C., some day when you are turning
over the relics of the past, 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 for ever from your sight the dust of
one who has SO oftcnnestled close to upur
warm heart. For many long and Sleep
less nights, when all my thoughts are at
rest, have wrestled with the conscious
ness ofapproaching death, and at last it
has forced itself upon my mind and al
though to you and to others it might now
seem but the nervous imaginations ofa
g Many weary hours have passed in the
endeavor to reconcile myself to leaving
you, whom | love so well, and this bright
world of sunshine and beauty; and hard
indeed is it to struggle on silently and
alone with the sure conviction that | am
about to leave all forever and 60 down
alone in the dark valley: But know
in whom have trusted, and, leaning upon
His arm, fear no evil Don't blame
me for keeping even all this from you.
How could l subject you, of all pthcrs,
to such sorrow as | feel at parting, when
time will soon make it apparent to you?
| 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 trans
ferring the sinking head from your breast
to my Savior's bosom And you 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
spirits shall hold one last fond communion
until gently fading from my view the
last of earth, you shall mingle with the
first bright glimpses of the unfading
glOries of that better world, where part
ings are unknown. Well do know the
spot, dear C., 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 and 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 know you'll love
it none the less when you sec the same
quiet sunlight linger and play among the
grass that grows over your Mary S grave.
know you'll 60 often alone there, when
| am laid there, and my spirit will be
with you then, and whisper among the
waving branches, i am not lost, but gone
before -