Letter from Mrs. Martin CF 72
To Mrs Guerin
17 October 1871.
The misfortune that has just struck you saddens me deeply, you are really well tested. It is one of your first sorrows, my poor dear sister! May the good Lord grant you resignation to his holy will. Your dear little child is with Him, he sees you, he loves you, and you will find him again one day. It is a great consolation that I felt and still feel.
When I closed my dear little children's eyes and buried them, I felt a lot of pain, but it was always resigned. I did not regret the sorrows and worries I had endured for them. Several said to me: “It would be much better to never have had them. I couldn't bear that language. I did not find that sorrows and worries could be weighed against the eternal happiness of my children. Then they weren't lost forever, life is short and full of misery, we'll find them up there.
It was especially at the death of the first that I felt more keenly the happiness of having a child in Heaven. Because, the good Lord has proven to me in a significant way that he accepted my sacrifice. I obtained, through this little angel, a very extraordinary grace.
My little Hélène, who has since gone to join him, had been afflicted with an earache for six months, and this ailment kept getting worse. I had consulted several doctors and other people who, supposedly, knew very well about it, but nothing helped. It had gotten to the point that she was wearing a blindfold and the pus, which exhaled an unbearable odor, seeped through the linens in less than two hours; Finally, the poor little girl could no longer hear on the side where she had pain.
One day, on my way back from taking her to the doctor, who had told me nothing good about her, seeing everyone's impotence, I was inspired to speak to my little Joseph, who had been dead for five weeks. So I take the child and make him say a prayer to his little brother. The next morning, the ear was completely healed, the flow had suddenly stopped and the little one never felt anything again. I still obtained several other graces, but less significant than this one.
You see, my dear sister, it is a great good to have little angels in Heaven, but it is no less painful for nature to lose them, these are the great sorrows of our life.
How I would like to be with you to console you! If I listened to the desire that I have, I would arrive in Lisieux for next Sunday, but I would be afraid of tiring you, in the state of weakness in which you are. So I resign myself to waiting.
I was just telling my husband that it would be for the Sunday before All Saints' Day and that I would be back on Wednesday, but unfortunately, the holiday falling on that Wednesday, I would have to bring my return forward so as not to travel by this holy day; I therefore prefer to postpone until the following week. I have felt the need to see you all for a long time; I would have liked it to be in joy, but since the good Lord did not allow it, we must submit.
