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My Mother - by The General
(published in ' All the World' - August 1893)
Mary Booth (née Moss) William's Mother
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Both my mother and my father were Derbyshire people. They were born within a few miles of each other, the latter at Belper, a small town, and the former at Somercoates, a small village within a mile or two of Alfreton. My mother's father was a well-to-do farmer. Her mother died when she was three years of age, and her father marrying again she was taken to the heart and home of a kind uncle and aunt, who reared and educated her, giving her at the same time a good sound religions training.
Years passed of which we have but imperfect knowledge, during which by some means she drifted and became a resident of the small town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Here she met my father, who was availing himself, of the waters as a remedy for his chronic enemy rheumatism. He offered marriage. She refused. He left the town indignantly; but returned to renew his offer, which was finally accepted. Marriage followed.
Up to this date her path through life had been comparatively smooth; but from this hour onward, through many long and painful years, it was crowded with difficulties and anxieties of a very trying description.
My father's fortunes appear to have commenced waning almost directly after their union. At that time he would have passed, I suppose, as a rich man, according to the estimate of riches in those days. But bad times came. And very bad times they were, such as we know little about, despite all the grumbling of this modern era.
Nottingham, where the family was then located, suffered heavily, a large proportion of its poorer classes being reduced to the verge of starvation. My father, who had invested the entire savings of his lifetime in cottage property, was seriously affected by these calamitous circumstances, in fact he was ruined.
How bravely my mother stood by his side during that dark and sorrowful season, is indelibly written on my memory. She shared his every anxiety, advised him in all his business perplexities, and upheld his spirit as crash upon crash one piece of property after another went overboard. Years of a heavy affliction on my father's part followed, during which she was his tender, untiring nurse, comforting and upholding his spirit unto death; and then she stood out all alone, to fight the battles of the family amidst the wreck of his fortunes.
Those days were gloomy indeed; and the wonder is, in looking back upon them, that she survived them. It would have seemed perfectly natural for her to have died of a broken heart, and been borne away to lie in my father's grave.
But she had reasons for living. Her children bound her to earth, and for our sakes she toiled on with unswerving devotion and unintermitting care. After a time the waters found a smoother channel, and, so far as this world's troubles were concerned, her days were ended in comparative peace.
She died on January 3rd, 1875, being eighty-four years of age in the September of the previous year. Eight years before, she was the subject of a severe attack of rheumatic fever, which lasted five months. She then lost the proper use of her side, which occasioned a terrible fall downstairs by which she fractured her leg, which never properly healed, and for seven years she was confined to her bed. But for this accident it is quite possible that she might have lived to a still greater age.
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