MAST, Lula (died 1918)

MAST

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/28/2010 at 13:01:27

Lula Mast

At a time when joy and hope reigned supreme in almost every home and at an hour when the festival boards are spread and the many united families are gathered around them, partaking of earth's richest viands, the Angel of Death passed by the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mast of Mitchell, and plucked from what home one of its choicest jems in the life of their oldest daughter, Lula.

She was permitted to brighten and cheer that home for a little less than fifteen years. In this dispensation of Providence we are reminded that death is no respecter of persons, places, or time. We look upon the death of the aged as a certainty and when we know their life's work is about done, worn out by the cares and burdens of life, and we see them standing on the border of the river of time, perhaps looking backward upon an empty world of vanity and vexation of spirit, or more likely, looking forward to the great beyond, longing to be with the loved ones that are gone on before. And when the pearly gates are opened and they enter in, it is not so hard to calm our grief and we can feel and say, "thy will, O God, be done"

But why God gives us these precious flowers to water and cultivate until they are about ready to bloom and then allow the grim monster, death, to place his icy hand upon them and wither them in a moment, it is hard to understand or to be reconciled with our lot. It may be that He needs them to adorn the Paradise beyond or perhaps to sell that angelic throng who act as a beacon light to aid us to shun the shoals of time or encourage us onward and upward as we pass along life's pathway. It is said, "Death loves a shining mark."

Lula Mast, though somewhat frail in body, was strong in mind, filled with all those Christian graces that tend to make one lovely, patient, obedient, sweet tempered and unselfish. Thru all her long sickness she never complained. Her greatest joy was in making others happy. Everything that parents and loving friends could do was done to restore her to health, but all in vein.

While having no fear of death, she longed to live. Her classmates the Sunday School, the Christian Endeavor Society, her home and family were very dear to her, and it was very hard for her to give them up.

She frequently talked about them all. The last night on hearth, while the children of the Sunday school were holding their Christmas exercises at the church, she insisted and would not be contented until her mother went there and informed her as to what was going on.

Ever since she was a little child, she had been there on these occasions and taken some part, her sweet voice had often charmed her hearers there in song.

But before the meridian of the Christmas day had passed, she realized that her departure was near at hand, for the little frail body was growing cold in death, in spite of all that loving friends could do. It refused to do its bidding and from a mind that was yet clear and bright, she cast her eyes around the room, upon the pictures upon the wall, one of which was the Cedar River, she said, "I shall see that beautiful river, with its fine scenery no more, and the piano, the instrument she loved to play on so well, "I shall have no more use for it." And when her Christmas presents were placed into her lap, her hands become too weak to hold them, in childlike accent she said, "they are nice, but I cannot see them." With dazed eyes and purple lips, she motioned for her loved ones to come nearer that she might kiss them, and whispered, "goodbye.

Meet me in heaven," then peacefully passed away. A.B.

[ Osage News 1918 ]

Transcribed by Kathy Pike, August 2003