Friday July 22.
I could not write in my diary yesterday. A new sorrow: a letter from Papa to Bummy communicating to us the death of dear Mary, Sam’s beloved wife, whch. took place on the 3d. of last month in Jamaica.[1] Lovely, loving, & beloved she was! She loved me—I am sure she did: and I loved her—how could I help it? Does it not appear, as if all those who have loved, or been loved by me, are to be separated from me? The Lord’s will—the Lord’s will be done. But I am human, & very sad at heart. Yet if He is my shepherd, will he not make me lie down, still, on the green pastures—either on the pastures of earth of Heaven? Let me not think now of myself. Poor Sam! I have prayed for him. Comfort him Only comforter— Support him Only staff— preserve him Only Lord!—
I have written to Papa today. It was an effort, but a necessary one. Oh dear dear Mary—was our parting the very very last? How may tears I shed that day!—and then there was a hand here, to wipe tears away!—[2] I will not write anymore.
1. Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 28 July 1831: “DIED.—On the 3d of June, in Jamaica, aged 28, Mary Clementina, the wife of Samuel Barrett Moulton Barrett, Esq.”
2. E.B.B. refers to her mother whose death occured in 1828.
