"I AM SATISFIED"
(Taken from "House of Glory" by S. Michael Wilcox)
In 1850 in Lancashire England there lived a woman named Ann Massey Clegg. She was a very poor widow. She was raising nine children--5 of her own and 4 from her husband's former marriage. They lived in the industrial part of England where they worked in the cotton mills all day long, breathing the lint into their lungs. Ann Massey Clegg was poor in health, and day by day she would watch her 5 year old son named Thomas taken by the hands of his older sisters who weren't much older than he was and they would lead him into the cotton mills to work. She wanted a better life for her family. Often the only food they had was a little oatmeal in the bottom of a tea cup. When the missionaries came into Lancashire, Ann Massey was one of the first to accept the message of the restoration and join the church and a compelling desire to gather to Zion was born in her heart. Poor as she was she could never imagine how she would ever find the ability to make that journey. But with prayer and fasting and great desire, a wealthy squire made an offer to five poor families that he would pay their passage to America. Ann Massey's family was chosen.
She feared she would not make the journey to its end because of her health. But sensing another opportunity would never come, and wanting her children to be raised in Zion, she booked passage out of Liverpool, sailed to the States, crossed to Nebraska, and joined a wagon train coming to Utah. By this time her health was so poor that she had to lie in the wagon and just try to hang on to life because she wanted to see her children safe in Utah. When they finally pulled over in Emigration Canyon, Thomas her son, now older, stopped the team, turned it around and lifted his mother up out of the wagon bed, and pointed to the valley and said, "Mother, we have arrived." She gazed at the valley for a few moments and then said, "I am satisfied."
She died about six weeks later. But on the night she died she appeared to two of her children who had been farmed out to different families to be taken care of--one in Cache Valley and one in Provo. They saw her--happy, smiling, waving goodbye to them. She did not want her children to feel that her sacrifice had cost too much for her.
(Taken from "House of Glory" by S. Michael Wilcox)
In 1850 in Lancashire England there lived a woman named Ann Massey Clegg. She was a very poor widow. She was raising nine children--5 of her own and 4 from her husband's former marriage. They lived in the industrial part of England where they worked in the cotton mills all day long, breathing the lint into their lungs. Ann Massey Clegg was poor in health, and day by day she would watch her 5 year old son named Thomas taken by the hands of his older sisters who weren't much older than he was and they would lead him into the cotton mills to work. She wanted a better life for her family. Often the only food they had was a little oatmeal in the bottom of a tea cup. When the missionaries came into Lancashire, Ann Massey was one of the first to accept the message of the restoration and join the church and a compelling desire to gather to Zion was born in her heart. Poor as she was she could never imagine how she would ever find the ability to make that journey. But with prayer and fasting and great desire, a wealthy squire made an offer to five poor families that he would pay their passage to America. Ann Massey's family was chosen.
She feared she would not make the journey to its end because of her health. But sensing another opportunity would never come, and wanting her children to be raised in Zion, she booked passage out of Liverpool, sailed to the States, crossed to Nebraska, and joined a wagon train coming to Utah. By this time her health was so poor that she had to lie in the wagon and just try to hang on to life because she wanted to see her children safe in Utah. When they finally pulled over in Emigration Canyon, Thomas her son, now older, stopped the team, turned it around and lifted his mother up out of the wagon bed, and pointed to the valley and said, "Mother, we have arrived." She gazed at the valley for a few moments and then said, "I am satisfied."
She died about six weeks later. But on the night she died she appeared to two of her children who had been farmed out to different families to be taken care of--one in Cache Valley and one in Provo. They saw her--happy, smiling, waving goodbye to them. She did not want her children to feel that her sacrifice had cost too much for her.
"I AM SATISFIED"
(Taken from "House of Glory" by S. Michael Wilcox)
In 1850 in Lancashire England there lived a woman named Ann Massey Clegg. She was a very poor widow. She was raising nine children--5 of her own and 4 from her husband's former marriage. They lived in the industrial part of England where they worked in the cotton mills all day long, breathing the lint into their lungs. Ann Massey Clegg was poor in health, and day by day she would watch her 5 year old son named Thomas taken by the hands of his older sisters who weren't much older than he was and they would lead him into the cotton mills to work. She wanted a better life for her family. Often the only food they had was a little oatmeal in the bottom of a tea cup. When the missionaries came into Lancashire, Ann Massey was one of the first to accept the message of the restoration and join the church and a compelling desire to gather to Zion was born in her heart. Poor as she was she could never imagine how she would ever find the ability to make that journey. But with prayer and fasting and great desire, a wealthy squire made an offer to five poor families that he would pay their passage to America. Ann Massey's family was chosen.
She feared she would not make the journey to its end because of her health. But sensing another opportunity would never come, and wanting her children to be raised in Zion, she booked passage out of Liverpool, sailed to the States, crossed to Nebraska, and joined a wagon train coming to Utah. By this time her health was so poor that she had to lie in the wagon and just try to hang on to life because she wanted to see her children safe in Utah. When they finally pulled over in Emigration Canyon, Thomas her son, now older, stopped the team, turned it around and lifted his mother up out of the wagon bed, and pointed to the valley and said, "Mother, we have arrived." She gazed at the valley for a few moments and then said, "I am satisfied."
She died about six weeks later. But on the night she died she appeared to two of her children who had been farmed out to different families to be taken care of--one in Cache Valley and one in Provo. They saw her--happy, smiling, waving goodbye to them. She did not want her children to feel that her sacrifice had cost too much for her.
(Taken from "House of Glory" by S. Michael Wilcox)
In 1850 in Lancashire England there lived a woman named Ann Massey Clegg. She was a very poor widow. She was raising nine children--5 of her own and 4 from her husband's former marriage. They lived in the industrial part of England where they worked in the cotton mills all day long, breathing the lint into their lungs. Ann Massey Clegg was poor in health, and day by day she would watch her 5 year old son named Thomas taken by the hands of his older sisters who weren't much older than he was and they would lead him into the cotton mills to work. She wanted a better life for her family. Often the only food they had was a little oatmeal in the bottom of a tea cup. When the missionaries came into Lancashire, Ann Massey was one of the first to accept the message of the restoration and join the church and a compelling desire to gather to Zion was born in her heart. Poor as she was she could never imagine how she would ever find the ability to make that journey. But with prayer and fasting and great desire, a wealthy squire made an offer to five poor families that he would pay their passage to America. Ann Massey's family was chosen.
She feared she would not make the journey to its end because of her health. But sensing another opportunity would never come, and wanting her children to be raised in Zion, she booked passage out of Liverpool, sailed to the States, crossed to Nebraska, and joined a wagon train coming to Utah. By this time her health was so poor that she had to lie in the wagon and just try to hang on to life because she wanted to see her children safe in Utah. When they finally pulled over in Emigration Canyon, Thomas her son, now older, stopped the team, turned it around and lifted his mother up out of the wagon bed, and pointed to the valley and said, "Mother, we have arrived." She gazed at the valley for a few moments and then said, "I am satisfied."
She died about six weeks later. But on the night she died she appeared to two of her children who had been farmed out to different families to be taken care of--one in Cache Valley and one in Provo. They saw her--happy, smiling, waving goodbye to them. She did not want her children to feel that her sacrifice had cost too much for her.
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