Tillie Lydston 1843-1905

Tillie Lydston 1843 – 1905 I was forty six When I first saw the hills. Those most magical eastern hills of my home. I loved Whittier as my mother And it saddens me I can’t be there again. I left behind family and friends in faraway Illinois For those wondrously beautiful eastern hills, Where my new friends set up homes and feasted With many songs of worship to our Lord. On Sundays we all sang loudly and earnestly In the sun’s benevolent rays of the Friends Church. Gathering all our voices together into one enormous crescendo, We celebrated the presence of God. My gift was music And to God I offered up my singing voice in praise, And this I did for 41 years. During apple blossom time in ‘69 I married Samuel And he stood by me As I grew old, got fat and decided to leave Illinois. When we reached here by train, Me and Samuel set up the business on Greenleaf, And made our home Amidst the whispering cedars and pines on Pilgrim Way. I bore two children in the upstairs bedroom, Amidst the doilies and the teacups, And I heard the voices of heaven Reveal the truth of a thousand questions. I died with my Bible And my head propped on a pillow. Here in Clark Cemetery I feel no death, Just continuing life. Amidst the singing voices of the dead.