DIY History | Transcribe | Iowa Women’s Lives: Letters and Diaries | Ann Larimer letters to husband John, February-July 1865

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Ann Larimer letters to husband John, February-July 1865

05_1866-03-16-Page 03

to see how she was & then went to bed, before I got up she was past answering when spoken to, she lay as though she was a sleep, breathing very hard & moaneing most all the time, her hands & feet cramped very bad at times. Doc went away Sunday night. Monday morning she roused up & we thought was takeing a change for the better, how strange that we could have for one moment entertained the idea that there was hope, but we thought if Doc was here we could save her. Ellis started for him. met him at Quincy but by the time he came she had sunk again, he could do nothing for her. John, it was a heart rendering scene, your Father took Flora by the hand & went to the bed to bid her a last adieu, when the boyes came & stood by her bedside, Will leaned over and called "Mother, don't you know me?" and John I firmely believe that she heard that last appeal of her boy then & how pitifull she moaned & threw her armes around his neck, I thought it was a last strugle, the dying embrace, you cannot imagine the loce that was shown to her, only by thinking how you would have done if you had been here. She lingered on through the day monday & still we thought she could not survive the night, she lived untill 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, she kept gradually sinking from the time I came here untill she sunk in death. Sunday night Mrs. Garding set up with us. Monday night Miss Mae Edwin Hadly and myself took turns holding the

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to see how she was & then went to bed, before I got up she was past answering when spoken to, she lay as though she was a sleep, breathing very hard & moaneing most all the time, her hands & feet cramped very bad at times. Doc went away Sunday night. Monday morning she roused up & we thought was takeing a change for the better, how strange that we could have for one moment entertained the idea that there was hope, but we thought if Doc was here we could save her. Ellis started for him. met him at Quincy but by the time he came she had sunk again, he could do nothing for her. John, it was a heart rendering scene, your Father took Flora by the hand & went to the bed to bid her a last adieu, when the boyes came & stood by her bedside, Will leaned over and called "Mother, don't you know me?" and John I firmely believe that she heard that last appeal of her boy then & how pitifull she moaned & threw her armes around his neck, I thought it was a last strugle, the dying embrace, you cannot imagine the loce that was shown to her, only by thinking how you would have done if you had been here. She lingered on through the day monday & still we thought she could not survive the night, she lived untill 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, she kept gradually sinking from the time I came here untill she sunk in death. Sunday night Mrs. Garding set up with us. Monday night Miss Mae Edwin Hadly and myself took turns holding the