When the Dead Send Letters

Three years of silence, then a letter that changed everything.

Hannah Jones was pregnant when her husband Edward departed for America in 1853. The church needed his skills. She agreed he should go, with the intent that he would send money for her to join him at a later date.

Hannah waited… and waited… but no word came. She must have started to get worried. When the ship returned, her father went to check it out. He asked the Captain about Edward and the Captain said that he had died and they threw him overboard.

I think Hannah’s father was secretly happy with this outcome. He didn’t approve of Edward or of Hannah joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But Hannah was devastated.

They married a mere 5 months before Edward had left... and now he was gone.

But the truth is Edward wasn’t dead.

He was, however, fighting for his life in a hospital in New York. He had contracted Typhoid fever on the ship and was extremely sick. He stayed in the New York hospital for 7 months, but he did eventually recover.

After he left the hospital, he worked to save enough money to send for Hannah. Unfortunately for our dear Edward, he could not write in English. He asked his roommate to pen the letter for him.

All was well until he woke up the next morning and found the letter, the money and the roommate had all vanished.

Edward lost his trust in people. He determined that he would not trust anyone else to send for Hannah until he made it to Utah.

Meanwhile, Hannah was grieving another loss. Their little girl had passed at 3 years of age. I can only imagine how distraught and intensely lonely Hannah must have felt.

At the insistence of her father, Hannah let an old flame, comfort her. She had not wanted to marry him because he was not a member. But, now she felt lost and unsure of what to do.

So, she prayed.

Soon after this prayer, Hannah gets a letter. A letter from her husband who, in her mind, had been dead for three years.

Imagine her shock! Imagine her relief! He explained in the letter all that had happened, and enough money for her to travel very well to join him in Utah. She had enough to travel by steamer, and then by a covered wagon.

But Hannah didn’t.

Hannah was a generous and kind woman. Instead of using the money for herself, she split it with her friend that had introduced her to the church: Jane. She and Jane came to America together, and crossed the plains pulling handcarts.

Hannah and Edward finally reunited.

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