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“I shall not forget what I have seen this night! "
Emily's Diary, Monday 28th January, 1839 Going with Louisa round her district this evening we came to a house where, as she told me on entering, I should see such sweet little twins, both boys, about six weeks old. Into the woman’s rook we went and I forgot all about the babies from other things and beings that attracted my attention, till the woman turning to Louisa said in a sorrowful tone “My poor little one is gone, Miss,” mowing at the same time towards to corner of the room, where for the first time I now saw a kind of shelf covered with a white sheet. I guessed her meaning and at first inclined to beg her to desist from her intention, but the next minute I had conquered my foolish dread, and had moved away to leave room for her. She approached the little bed, and throwing aside the coverlet held the candle so as to cast the light down upon the child, and for the first time in my life I gazed upon a corpse; but how different was it from the idea I had formed in my own mind! The little thing was stretched out, as if in a deep sleep, and but for the appearance of the drop of congealed blood on the undelip and the fallen look of the jaw, I should instinctively have said “Hush”. There was no look of pain of suffering about the face. All bore the appearance of calm and settle repose. I touched the hand, but there again I found it different from what I had thought. There was none of the stiffness which I had been accustomed to consider inseparable from death; the fingers though perfectly white and cold, fell from my hand as those of any sleeping person would have done, and I bent down and examined the face afresh before I could persuade myself that the infant was indeed sleeping the sleep of death. I turned away at length. As I turned the coverlet back again, the mother stammering slightly as she spoke, as if unwilling to giver her wishes birth, said “Would you kindly speak to Mr. Hall, Miss; for unless some good persons will assist me, I cannot bury the child”. Surely we know not the miseries of poverty." "I shall not forget what I have seen this night! God grant me that I may bear in mind that my time must soon come, and may he prepare me for it!”
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