April 1, 1621
Plimoth Settlement
Dear Imp,
The month hath turned and, although it be rainy, Squanto says it is the beginning of the time for corn planting. He calls these days Seequanakee'wush. I cannot believe it but perhaps spring and gardens are truly coming.
Squanto promises we shall see the corn shoots by June! We spend the whole day planting corn. The rain stops and the sun comes out and I start to laugh, for Hummy has not minded her hat and her face has grown so many freckles. I say I hope we have as much corn as she has freckles on her face.
Love,
Mem
April 2, 1621
Plimoth Settlement
Dear Imp,
'Tis the worst imaginable. When I return home I find Blessing crying uncontrollably and Mam coughing blood. Oh Imp, I am so ashamed. All these days I have been so taken with the Indians I have neglected my own dear Mam. I mean not neglected her in duty. I have helped her and brought her tea and carried her to the privy, but I have been blind. So full have my eyes been with the color and the feathers of the Indians that I have not seen my mother fade before me. I should have known that she was growing weaker.
She be so weak now she can hardly talk. She does look at the pumpkins we have strung on the ceiling and the corn. I explained to Samoset and Squanto how she loves that color and the dear souls bring more for me to string, along with some golden tansy that is dried. Father puts it up. Mam watches. It is silly, I know, but I have this notion that if she keeps watching the yellow she loves that floats above her head, that somehow this will stay death. That she will not need to go to heaven. That is if we can string these yellow beauties just so ...
I can write no more. I am too fearful.
Love,
Mem
April 3, 1621
Plimoth Settlement
Dear Imp,
Mam died this morning. She died with her eyes locked on the yellow of the pumpkins and the tansy. She died with two words on her parched lips: "I love." There was no time for the rest but we knew her meaning all the same. I be feeling so strange. I have no mother now. I have no mother. I keep repeating that to myself. But I cannot believe she is gone.
Love,
Mem
April 4, 1621
Plimoth Settlement
Dear Imp,
I have yet a new grief. Hummy sails tomorrow with her father on the Mayflower. That is when the ship is to leave. He must go back to England to be near the grave of his dear Elinor, he says. I am simply numb.
This morning we buried Mam. Father made the casket last night. We wrapped her in a wool shroud and I put in thyme to ward off nightmares and rosemary for remembrance. We had brought these herbs from Leyden. And, of course, I put in the brightest of the tansy.
Love,
Mem
April 5, 1621
Plimoth Settlement
Dear Imp,
I watched from the hillock until the Mayflower was but a speck on the horizon. Hummy and I decided not to say good-bye on the beach in front of the others, but early in the morning by the rim of the forest. She cried, but it is as if I still be too numb. She promises to come back some day - even if it must be as an indentured servant. She tried to give me every hope. She even said that if her father soon died, she would offer her service to another family for there is supposedly another ship coming next autumn. So we hugged by the edge of the forest and that was it. I watched the rest from here where I now still sit with you, Imp, my sole companion.
Oh Imp, I have lost so much. And to think a few short days ago I dared believe in spring again, but I was right the first time. It shall always be a winter in my head. I am black in my heart and full of wrath. I shall write no more for a long time.
Love and good-bye,
Mem
YOU ARE READING
Dear America A Journey to the New World Diary of Remember Patience Whipple
Teen Fiction"A Journey to the New World, the Diary of Remember Patience Whipple," is a two part dairy of a young girl who with her family and others traveled across seas in hopes of new lands for religious freedom. The first part of Remember's diary tells the s...
