Reminiscinces of Sister Clara

In 1864 the Bishop of Honolulu sent to beg for Sisters to go to the Sandwich Islands.  Three Sisters were sent.  On their way they stopped at Hursley [Hampshire] for the blessing of the venerable Rev. J. [John] Keble and secured that of their own spiritual Father.  One of these Sisters [Sister Bertha] had nursed in the East till the end of the war [Crimean].

Dr. Pusey soon after took part in a new foundation art Norwich and tried to help in the Wight School - but he could not manage the boys, who put out the lights, upset the ink, and altogether ignored the reverence due to their new teacher.

In the autumn of 1865 he had bought a house at Chale in the Isle of Wight, and there received the two Hawaiian children who were brought over by the Mother Eldress (Miss Chambers).  To these children Dr. Pusey became devotedly attached and they returned his love by the sweetest affection.  He was as a father to them.

1865.  Soon after the arrival of the two first Hawaiian children, of whom he said "I asked the Mother to have them brought over." they came to Ascot to be present at Queen Emma's visit [before she returned to Hawaii] there.  The Hermitage, where he was lodged, was very small, so that he had to resign his sleeping room to the little ones, all day, as a nursery.

He used to take the little Palemo (4 years old) in his arms and stand at the window to show her the "pretty mu cows" calling them by their name in Hawaii (which he took pains to learn for the children's sake.)  The children called him "Dear Papa".

Little Kalakai [Kealakai] had a new warm dress in which to visit Queen Emma.  She went up to him, holding it out with delight, "Maikai, Maikai, Papa" -  He looked upon her with his loving child, and answered "Maikai, my child, Maikai.  God bless you."

In 1870, he told how the little Palemo [She died at Ch. Ch. early in 1872] on one occasion, did not come in to bid him goodbye as usual, and she was sent for - and then it appeared why:  she had heard he was going and "there was the trace of the one tear from her eye" - "Oh her love was wonderful:  marvellous [sic] love."  "I believe her place must be with the Seraphim."  "One day she took up a biscuit, pierced as they often are, and looked through it and said, "It ought to be written up in the stars, Jesus loves us."

"I was reading that chapter in Ezekiel to the Mother, in the Church Service, when it speaks so awfully of "bear his iniquity" and Palemo was there and greatly affected.  Soon after she came to dearest Mother in a flood of tears, saying how naughty she had been, and how sorry she was.  Dear Mother talked to her, and told me, and I put on my s____lies [sp???], and with the Mother's help, she confessed all her little naughtinesses and I gave her the Absolution, the tears running down her cheeks -  Oh, she was a wonderful child -- she was quite comforted after this."

"Once she saw a picture of the Crucifixion and gazed on it very earnestly for some time, and after that she would not play for an hour."

"When dying and no longer able to see, the Mother was wishing to come to me, for I was ill at the time, and said "Shall you want anything my darling," she replied "I do not want anything but you dear Mamma."

"She [Mother Sellon] brought the disease with her, of which she died."

When the Cholera raged so furiously in London in 1866, the Mother of the Devonport Society organized a Hospital in the East End, and there Dr. Pusey attended the sick.

He was much struck with one poor man who was dying, and to whom he was speaking of Our Blessed Saviour and of His Great Redeeming Love, "Ah Sir," said the sufferer, "if it were not for Him, what should I do"

One of the Sisters who had been working in the Hospital and others of the Society when the next year began, went out with the Mother to the Sandwich Islands, still farther to establish and enlarge the Mission there.

She superintended building a Priory and large School at Honolulu and visited the one which had now been established some years at Lahania [Lahaina, in 1864].

Dr. Pusey took charge, which he usually did not do, of the outside work of the Sisterhood during the absence of the Mother.

The Mother returned in the summer of the same year 1867, bringing back with her, two more native children, Keomailani and Manoanoa.

Dr. Pusey dedicated his house in the Isle of Wight to the education of these children, calling it the Foreign Mission House, and helping the Mother in bringing them up.

He used to take them to church with their governess and tell them stories from the Bible.

Also he would tell them Eastern tales as Aladin [sic], and the Forty Thieves:  in these he found a spiritual meaning, especially the lamp of prayer.

He procured a Highland pony for the youngest child and would lead her about himself.

Palemo would say "Dear Papa is so good, he does his lessons even when his head aches."

He tried to teach Palemo her alphabet, and to read - He said "She is too old to be interested in 'my cat got a rat', so I have begun with the Bible.  She very attentive but cannot retain:  what she learns one day, she has quite forgotten the next."

He used to say of her, "What can you expect when her grandmother led her countrymen to battle on horseback?"

She would amuse herself by asking people to pronounce her name, "Palemo Kekakaakapee." [this is a handwritten copy of an original letter.  Is it possible the transcriber misread the name]

When going into Cornwall, "When the carriage stopped, quite a crowd assembled round to look at Palemo's eyes - they were such wonderful eyes!"

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In 1870 the Chapel was so far completed as to allow of Divine Service being said in it.  It is still the same, very small, having only two arches on each side and temporary walls to the East and West.  The arches [are] bricked up where it is hoped some day there will be aisles.

Dr. Pusey opened this Chapel and there admitted some Associate Sisters.  This once only did the beloved Mother assist at any Service in that place.

The next year [1871] Palemo was very ill, and in March 1872 passed away, to the great grief of those who had so tenderly nursed her.  Her friend Kalakia [Kealakai] had sunk before after devoting herself to her little countrywoman and to the Mother.  She would often sleep in the Mother's room and Dr. Pusey before going to the Hermitage, would arrange her mattress and cover her with blankets and a fur, seeing her comfortable - and asking her if she would have the fur so as to look like a beast or a child.

Now there were but two brown children left, and those two the Mother took entirely under her own care.  By this time Dr. Pusey had left Chale which had become unsafe from the cliff giving way, and had hired a house at Malvern.

The death of Palemo was perhaps the cause of the Mother's having a seizure.  She never regained the use of her arm.  She awoke in the night quite uncomfortable, and said Matins; slept again and awoke paralyzed.

She went to Germany [in 1872] , accompanied by those friends who had long been so devoted to her, taking Keomailani with her.  Dr. Pusey was of the company.  He was then suffering from a hurt of the second finger which prevented his writing; and he said "I feared at one time I should not be able to celebrate, but God is very good."  He used to dictate letters to one person, and have them addresssed by another; still he said, "It was very different, one could not write heart to heart."

At Genoa he had a very serious illness [Jan 1873] and his life was dispaired of - In Passion Week after this, he wrote, "I hope ere long to return to England in restored health, by the mercy of God, and soon after, please God, to see you all . . . We have to pack up our goods in traveling to a far country and to send them before us, our bodily strength, but with them also bodily discipline.  The humility of giving up discipline which we should love will do more for us in God's mercy than the discipline itself.  Humility keeps all other graces safe.
God help you and give you all Easter joy.
In him your very aff. f.
E. B. P.

Sat in Passion Week, 1873
"Dearest Mother has you all always in her heart.  Her bodily health is chequered, but God's love and mercy are ever present."

On returning, Dr. Pusey took a house at Malvern, where the Mother and the two Hawaiian children were entertained.

The Convent of St. Saviour's now began to be turned into a Cancer Hospital and Mrs. Palmer was a chief m___er and nurse, having gained much knowledge and a deep interest in this dreadful disease while in France.

In 1875 and 1876 Dr. passed some time at Ascot alone for a complete rest.  He would say, "I am very tired but that is chronic."  This last was a year of sorrow and distress.  Dear Mother's old and tired friends [The Mother Eldress Catherine, Mrs. Palmer, and Sister Lucy.  Mother Eldress became a Roman Catholic in August 1876.  Mrs. Palmer established a cancer hospital, with Sister Lucy as her helper] at length parted from her, and stroke after stroke fell upon her wounded heart.  She said "There will be one blow too much."

Broken down she returned to Malvern, a Sister [Lay Sister Ellen Zita], Manoanoa and a secretary [Miss Ellen Bruton] with her.  Dr. Pusey spared nothing which could do her good, but in November the change came.  He was sent for, administered to her night and day, cheering her last sufferings.  "Pray; pray," she said - and he prayed hour after hour.  "I could not be near the bed, for Dearest Mother was restless; but I know her heart and from a short distance pronounced the Absolution."

"She bid be goodnight three times, for day and night were to her then alike."

He had to return to Oxford duties as soon as that dear spirit had been rendered up into the Hands of its Creator.  Nov. 20, 1876.  He arranged everything, and himself assisted at all the Funeral Rites except the deposing in the grave, to which he could not "trust himself."  He bid the Sisters make it as bright as possible.

The Mother was loved with a devoted and zealous love, beyond the ordinary limits of love.  Her slightest desire had been an irresistible law, and for years her guidance within and without was marvelous, passing the knowledge of women.  Justly was she called by one "The Teresa of England."

Dr. Pusey suffered much -- not like some who harden themselves to grief, he ever felt it acutely.  He sis not do what he deprecated, "harden" himself "against sorrow."

He had been as the most dutiful of sons, while at the same time a faithful Priest, and ever since the departure of his own beloved Mother, the Mother of the Devonport Society had engaged to pay him that attention to his wants and comforts, whenever he required it, which Lady Lucy [Pusey's mother] had shown him up to that time.

The reverence and love were mutual, but strangely enough the younger Mother played the senior part.

Few like her could enter into his thoughts, and it must have been an unspeakable relief, after the labors of the day for those two exalted spirits to commune together.

In 1877 Dr. Pusey, at the request of the Society, undertook the Office of Warden and performed the service of inaugurating the Mother Superior, who had been appointed by the Foundress. (Her work, after some years in the Crimea, had been at the Hawaiian Islands, taking the management of that Mission, so that she was well used to government.)

He passed the long vacation at Ascot and entered into an arrangement with that venerable, holy man the Rev. James Skinner, to become honorary Chaplain at Ascot, to assist the indefatigable labors of the Rev. J. Lindsey Roberts, Chaplain to the Hospital since the year 1855, where it was first opened at Boyne Hill.

Friends contributed funds for enlarging the Hermitage and thus afforded spacious lodgings to the Chaplain, while Dr. Pusey retained only three rooms.  That year his son visited him for some days, whilst at Ascot.

In 1878 [1879] Dr. Pusey passed Holy Week at Ascot [He spent each summer at Ascot from 1877 onwards] , celebrating daily till the Thursday, when Mr. Roberts came.  It was a blessed sight to see those two venerable men deferring to each other, as to who should celebrate.  But the younger gained his point, and the aged Warden for the last time consecrated in the little chapel.

He passed that summer at Ascot spending much time among the pine woods, taking there his writing and books and proofs.  The Mother Superior devoted herself to his comfort, spending the day at his lodging to minister to him, and this she continued to do whenever he was at Ascot. [Miss Kibbel, who acted as Dr. Pusey's helper in various ways, was also at the Hermitage during his stays at Ascot]

After the death of the beloved Mother Lydia, the Mother Marian of Trinity Convent, Oxford, kindly took charge of the two Hawaiian girls and attended to their education.  They passed their vacation at Ascot Priory in the summer and used to go to see Rev. Father and sing hymns to him, most days.

Manoanoa was daily sinking and in February 1879 fell alseep.  Of her, Dr. Pusey said, "She wrote to her sister that on her death bed she had learnt to love God, and begged her to love Him too."

She was buried at Ascot Priory in the Cemetery, near to the little Palemo.

The next year Keomailani returned to her native country, and after living some time with the Sisters there, married under good auspices.  The marriage was referred to Dr. Pusey and his consent asked, as of an adopted child.

She received much kindness from him and from Mother Bertha.  they fitted her out for her return to her native land and sent presents for her marriage.

During the last ten years Dr. Pusey used to allow his children to come to Oxford for Confession in Advent and Lent and those days were very precious -- He always shewed them hospitality.

He told of how he first became aware of his deafness.

"I was going to Cathedral and I did not hear the bell.  I was afraid I was late, and asked someone - and so I found that it was I who could not hear them."

It was believed that he used to celebrate at the Hermitage in former days, daily; when infirmity