Isabella Campbell
June 17th 1924 Aged 78 Years
SHE HATH DONE WHAT
SHE COULD
My first reaction many years ago was
that this was a rather demeaning epitaph, a subtle expression of
reproach at not having done quite enough. Was my imagination
working overtime, projecting a lack of familial warmth onto her, my
great-grandmother? Or do the words indicate a fulfilment of her
character? ... a life that met demands and challenges to the best of
her ability? With resigned or cheerful acceptance if not creating
extraordinary notice?
Did Isabella choose those words to
commemorate her life? Or were they chosen by someone else to sum up a
long life?
Isabella is buried with her husband,
John McFadyen, in Sunnyside (Moosenose) Cemetery, in Springfield,
Manitoba. Since she outlived her husband by nine years, someone else
had the words engraved on the family tombstone, perhaps actually
chose them. At the time of her death, neither she nor her remaining
children lived in Manitoba.
Knowing this family slightly ―
through reminiscences of a few grandchildren who visited ―
it behoved me to revisit the New Testament. The McFadyens were
strong Presbyterians of Free Church persuasion. I don't know how
strict their observance of Sabbath activities was, what with farm
work being necessary every day of the week, but every Sunday the
family gathered at the dining room table to have Bible readings.
No-one was excused.
Mark 14:6-8 (King James Version) ―
She
hath wrought a good work on me. ...
She
hath done what she could; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to
the burying.
On
the day when the Last Supper would occur, a wealthy woman approached
Jesus and anointed him with the full measure of her very precious spikenard
oil. The onlookers were saying what a waste; if she had sold it
instead, it would have provided for many poor people that Jesus cared
about. But Jesus rebuked them; she simply brought what she had at
hand and honoured him with all of it. Most of all, her anointing
unknowingly served a higher purpose: traditional preparation for his
impending death and burial.
The
thing about Bella, as she was known, was the raising of ten children
when I expect she also did everything daily required of a farmer's wife.
Not unusual for her time and place. She lived through the deaths of
two sons and one daughter, the latter whom had Down Syndrome. When
her children scattered and the family farms were sold, she stayed
with her youngest daughter Barbara in Vancouver where she died. By
and large, an "ordinary" life.
No
doubt Barbara consulted her sisters for an appropriate epitaph (not
everyone on the family stone has one). How would I interpret that for
Isabella? Perhaps she clearly gave all she had to each mundane task.
Perhaps she consistently "made do" in any situation with
modest means. Perhaps her children felt she was a model of hard work
and Christian teaching. I will never know for certain, but
re-thinking an epitaph can be a lesson.
©
2015
Brenda Dougall Merriman
