She passed
into eternity at the time we were trying to get off the sand bar and
when uncle and I arrived in the morning, she was dead.
This was the first death that had taken place in our family. All of us
had grown to manhood and womanhood and had been mercifully spared all
these years until now the dearest one of all had to pass away and
leave us to mourn her loss. She was the embodiment of all that was
good in life, a pattern for all to follow. She was our second mother.
When mother was attending to the church work or visiting the sick,
accompanying father at baptisms, weddings, funerals or other offices
that fall to the minister's wife, sister was always ready to take her
place and see that all was well at home. She taught in the public
schools, gave music lessons, was German teacher, organist on Sunday
and teacher in the Sabbath school. Her life was always full of duties.
She had also been father's secretary and attended to all of his
correspondence in his absence. Never complaining, always there to
attend to all the duties devolving upon her, she was a happy spirit
of the home, as much missed as mother or father. She was my pattern
and guide and if I have ever achieved anything to merit commendation
during my life I owe all my best to her. She was my first music
teacher and I have never deviated from her principles of voice
placement. By so doing I am able to sing today with a correct
knowledge of perfect tone production and able to impart to others the
same tonal art that I have given to hundreds of pupils that have come
under my supervision during my many years of successful teaching in
California.
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