I listened to a podcast today from the mormon radio channel that talks about Emma Hale Smith. The first woman descendant of Joseph and Emma to join the church lives in Montana. There are also 300 of their direct descendants living in Australia. The most interesting part was the stuff that happened to her after Josephs death. She married some guy, who's name I can't remember but he was sort of a character. He chewed tobacco, Swore and drank alchohol. At one point he cheated on her and got another woman pregnant. A couple of years after that the woman came to Emma and asked her to take care of the child. Emma took the child into her home and raised him or her. When she was close to death her son Joseph the third went to her house and interviewed her for several days and she spoke about the gospel and about her testimony. There is a rather interesting account of her death. I do not know why it is so obscure. Here it is.
Emma lived almost thirty-five years after the martyrdom of her Prophet-husband. She died 30 April 1879 in her seventy-fifth year. In her last years she was greatly loved, and in the last hours of her life she was attended by her family: Louis Bidamon, Julia, Joseph III, 26 and Alexander. According to Alexander, Emma seemed to sink away, but then she raised up and stretched out her hand, calling, “Joseph! Joseph!” Falling back on Alexander’s arm, she clasped her hands on her bosom, and her spirit was gone. Both Alexander and Joseph thought she was calling for her son Joseph, but later, Alexander learned more about the incident. Sister Elizabeth Revel, Emma’s nurse, explained that a few days earlier Emma had told her that Joseph came to her in a vision and said, “Emma, come with me, it is time for you to come with me.” “As Emma related it, she said, ‘I put on my bonnet and my shawl and went with him; I did not think that it was anything unusual. I went with him into a mansion, and he showed me through the different apartments of that beautiful mansion.’ And one room was the nursery. In that nursery was a babe in the cradle. She said, ‘I knew my babe, my Don Carlos that was taken from me.’ She sprang forward, caught the child up in her arms, and wept with joy over the child. When Emma recovered herself sufficient she turned to Joseph and said, ‘Joseph, where are the rest of my children.’ He said to her, ‘Emma, be patient and you shall have all of your children.’ Then she saw standing by his side a personage of light, even the Lord Jesus Christ.” 27
Inspirational Thought
11 years ago
