July 31 97
My dear little Father,
I'm just writing you a few words to give you news of little Queen. They are always very bad; However
today she coughed up a little less blood, but yesterday we thought she wouldn't make it through the night. M' de Cornière himself feared him, because when at his 4 o'clock visit he saw that the blood had not stopped since the day before, he told our Mother not to wait until the next day to have her give Extreme Unction.
Our Father arrived at 6 o'clock, he administered Extreme Unction to her and afterwards he brought her the good Lord... It was very touching, I assure you, to see our little patient still with her calm and pure ; when she asked for forgiveness from the whole Community, more than one burst into tears. Last night she spat blood again; that night too, the night was not good but not as bad as one might have expected from the day. The morning was passable; no spitting of blood until 3 o'clock this afternoon when there was one. She is still burning with fever and suffers from tightness and pain in her side; well, she's very very ill and I think it's best that you delay your trip to Vichy, because she can't be well on many days like this, especially if she has days like yesterday.
It is impossible to imagine his happiness at dying, it is like a little child who desires with all his heart to go find his Father, never have we seen him die so calmly. "What do you want, she says to us, why should death scare me, I have only ever acted for the good Lord..." And when we said to her: "You may die the day of such a feast... - I don't need to choose a feast day to die, she replies, the day of my death will be the greatest of all feast days for me'...» Today Today, as she was coughing up a little less blood and there had been only a few sputums in her spittoon since the morning, she was only looking at them with a distressed air... "So little," she said, to suffer so much” and then: “So little ah! so it's not going to be today... I don't know how to die... I think I have to be very cute now, and wait for the "Thief" very nicely. »
Since it was very much feared yesterday that she would not make it through the night, a holy candle and holy water had been prepared in the apartment next door; she looks at these two objects all the time out of the corner of her eye with an air of complacency and says to us: "Do you see that candle, when the thief takes me away they will put it in my hand, but give me the candlestick it's too ugly'; then she enjoys talking to us about everything that will happen after her death. The way she tells us this, where we should cry, we laugh out loud, she is so funny... She goes over everything, it's her happiness and tells us about it in terms that make us feel good laugh. I think she will die laughing she is so cheerful.
I had interrupted my letter having heard Monsieur de Cornière ring. After the day today he is very embarrassed, seeing that all this spitting of blood does not weaken him in such a way as to make him pass into a great weakness. He says that at his age there is so much life that it is difficult to say whether it can go on for a few days or for a long time.
I will write to you every day and since the departure from La Musse is delayed you will perhaps know at the end of the week what to expect for your trip to Vichy. Perhaps you will have time to do so. All of this is problematic.
Mr l'Abbé (Youf) arrived in good health and happy, happy with his reception and his trip. Augustus is no less so. Thank you, thank you my dear little Father.
Thanks to mom for everything she sends us, herbs and flowers everything is the greatest pleasure.
I send you my biggest kiss from the heart as well as to my dear little Mother. - How I love you both! !... It is impossible that you can know it on earth. Little Queen sends her love to all of you.
Your little girl who cherishes you Mary of the Eucharist rci
I hope mum's indisposition won't have any unfortunate consequences. Not everyone has to be sick. I am very happy with the good news about Dad's health, may he continue like this. Petit Paulin kisses you very tightly and tells you that he is not going to fall ill. - All the little girls kiss Uncle, Aunt, brother and sister.
