Without Walter - Part 5 of Ann Phillips' Mission Journal

This series shares excerpts from the missionary journal of my great, great grandmother Ann Elizabeth Rasband Phillips who served in Laie, Hawaii 1900-1902. Click to read previous posts:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Nov 1st 1901 - Worked in the kitchen and went to primary.  Gave out the program for next week.

Nov 10th – Gave the lesson in Mutual today in Native.  Got along very well.

Nov 8th - Made 8 boxes of soap.  Sister Madsen and I. It is very good soap.

Nov 9 - Was put in as Tres[urer] of the Releaf Society.

Nov 17th - Went visiting and inviting the natives to Sunday School.

Nov 19th – Was combing my hair and found  big louse in my head.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but it shows that Annie had very long hair as a young woman.
Fortunately, I do not have a picture of the lice.

Nov 28 - Went to an entertainment in the morning given by the school.  Had a Thanksgiving dinner at the mission house, the first one ever held here.  Sisters Wooley and Madson and myself prepared the dinner.  There were twenty seated at the table at three o’clock.

Dec 4th – LeIsle is 9 months old today.  Sister Madson and I are still in the kitchen. Have had most of the kitchen work to do since Erin left last April.

Dec 5th - Sister Madson and I fixed some medicine for a Japanese women to rub her side where she had been kicked by a horse. It was badly swollen and Sister Madson rubbed it for her out in the wash house.

Dec 9th - Sister Woolley is very sick.  A Japanese woman has come to help us.  Sister Madson and I were very busy all day doing the work and went to Primary in the afternoon.

Dec 10th - I received two little dresses from Nettie and Thomasina Hansen for Leisle, one silk, the other lawn: white.  Also a strand of coral beads.  Sister Woolley is still very sick.

Dec 11th - We all fasted from six one evening until six the next evening.  Before supper we went to Sister Woolley’s room had prayer and the Elders administered to her.  We are happy to say that she is better this evening than she was this morning  Bro. Minor was mouth in prayer, Bro. George Davis administered the oil and Bro. Woolley sealed the annointing. They also administered to Roney Woolley.

Dec 17th  - About 5 o’clock, Bro. Waddoups telephoned out to Br. Woolley that the sad news of the death of my darling husband had reached Honolulu.  He died at 10 o’clock Saturday night Dec 14, 1901 with pneumonia.

We heard nothing more until today, Dec 21st.  Br. Bush arrived here from Hawaii where Bro. Phillips died.  The body could not be shipped.  It was buried at Waimea in a beautiful little spot.  The natives brought flowers of all kinds for him. He died easy and brave. The Lord has greatly blessed me and prepared me for the worst.  All the Bros. and sisters are so kind to me, I can never repay them.  Sister Madson has done everything in her power to comfort and help me.  She and Bro. Silver have done my work, ironed my clothes and everything.

Today Br. Minor took me out for a ride and told me that I could not see  my husband for he had to be buried at Waimea, Hawaii.   We went to see the pump, the reservoir and saw a crowd of Jap[anese] planting cane.

When I got back, all the sisters of the Releaf Society were gathered in my room to see me and show their aloha for us. They had pule and bid me have courage and faith.  Br. Davis gave me a calabash  and a native basket half full of shells. Lahela gave me a calabash and some Koa seeds. Br. Silver gave me a number of leis, lots of seeds and his picture.

Dec 22nd - Raining so hard we can not hold meetings to day. Sister Madson brought me Bro. Phillips clothes and I opened his bundle. My heart was nearly broken with grief. Bros. Davis and Musser made some candy.

Dec 23 - Got me a black dress and started to make it.  Lahela helped me.  The weather is very stormy.  Everything looks dark and dreary.  All nature seems to weep with me.

Walter Freeman Phillips, age 22
2 or 3 years before he died