When Words Heal
The Unexpected Answer to a Grieving Mother’s Prayer
Trigger Warning: Infant Loss
She could hear babies cries as she laid in bed, helpless. How her heart must have ached to be with her son, Walter. He had been born only five months before on January 22, 1859. Sometime after his birth she developed rheumatic fever and was unable to move much, if at all.
But, Hannah Last Cornaby was no stranger to hardship.
Her sister died when they were young, she lost all her friends when joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a mob attempted to stone her during her baptism (miraculously, a stone never hit her), she left her disapproving family and made the treacherous trek to the Salt Lake Valley, lost a child… and even more.
Still, I wonder if she knew what was going to happen that night.
If she knew just how broken her heart would become. If she knew how sick Walter really was. If hearing him cry brought back memories of her sweet baby already in heaven and if that made her sick with worry.
Friends and neighbors gathered in Hannah’s home to help her and her ailing child. Unfortunately, no amount of helpful hands could save him. After merely a few hours of being sick, Walter died.
Hannah does not write much about what happened immediately after. We know that she followed the counsel to be “baptized for [her] health and was entirely healed.”
The healing of her body did not do much to ease the aching of her soul.
Hannah prayed unceasingly, pleading with God for answers. Why had her babies been taken from this earth so soon? Her heart was shattered.
One night, during a long and impassioned prayer, she received a promise from the Holy Spirit assuring her that she would get her answer.
She didn’t have to wait long for that very same night, she received this poem from a dear friend: Sister Margaret Leah.
A few lines from a good friend that were exactly what she needed at that moment. Hannah must have felt immense peace after reading the poem because she said: “It satisfied me, and I have not shed a bitter tear on their account since.”
I know not everyone will resonate with the words of the poem, but I hope that we can all appreciate the peace that it brought to Hannah.
But, I can’t help to wonder about Margaret…
I wonder if Margaret worried over her words. If she thought that Hannah would be offended, or if she worried she was being too much. But it was exactly what Hannah needed in the hour she needed it most.
Take this as your sign to send the text.
Make the phone call.
Follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost; your words may just be an answer to a fervent prayer.
If you would like to read it in her own words, please download her autobiography which is free on google play books.
Cornaby, Hannah. Autobiography and Poems . Salt Lake City, UT: J.C. Graham Company , 1881.