Chapters 19-22
Chapter 19
It's October 1778, and Clara just left for Kansas. She was dropped off in Denver on her way, and Denver had grown so much (I bet she would have passed out if she had seen Denver today)! Clara was traveling by train, meaning she would get to her destination much quicker than on wagon, and there were bathrooms on board! This next part I find particularly appalling: The people on the train spotted a buffalo herd, and shot them all down for fun! The ones that didn't get killed ran off for their lives. I'm not some huge animal rights activist, but shooting all this bison for the sake of a good holler and some high-fives, is wrong. They did not do anything with the buffalo, they just started the train back up and let them lie there. Clara was there to help out the immigrants. She asked each one about Eliza Jane. Clara still had no luck. About a year later, she returned home. The Central City Register-Call wrote:
"Unfortunately, the long trip had taken its toll on Clara's health. She was nearly eighty, and she couldn't tramp around the country the way she had in her younger days. She had dropsy, which swelled up her feet and her hands, making it difficult to get around by the end of the day. Even worse, she had heart trouble. Whatever herb she had self-prescribed for her heart and her breathing wasn't working. She couldn't trudge up the steep streets delivering freshly ironed laundry anymore. She simply didn't have the breath to do it. (Lowery, Linda. One More Valley, One More Hill: The Story of Aunt Clara Brown. New York: Fudrick and Friends, Inc., 2002. p. 183-4.)"
Clara received a home in Denver from an anonymous donor. When Clara was eighty years old, she moved to her new house on Arapaho Street.
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| Arapahoe Street Sign Today Note the added letter E at the end of Arapahoe, the spelling must have been changed over time |
Chapter 20
Clara was slowly growing more and more unhealthy. She couldn't take people into her home because she couldn't even make good food for them. According to her doctor, her heart was getting even worse than it already was. Clara believed that she was going to die. She thought she was going to die without ever finding her daughter. On Valentine's Day, she received a letter. A woman whose name is not mentioned in the book wrote that she bumped into a woman named Mrs. Brewer at the post office who was addressed (Addressed? Get it?) as "Elize Jane." Long story short, this woman spoke with "Mrs. Brewer" and helped Clara meet her. Based on some details that were shared, Clara was convinced that this was indeed, her daughter! Her friends, however, were not as sure. Her friends thought that there must have been other freed slaves like Mrs. Brewer that had a sister drown. Clara would have to travel all the way to Iowa, and she was so old that this would be a difficult task on its own. She went anyway. She departed to when she was eighty-two years old. She had been so voracious in looking for her daughter; she was convinced that the day she had been dreaming of for forty-six years was coming soon.
Chapter 21
Just imagine the anticipation Clara must have been going through on the train ride. Remember late Christmas Eve when you were six years old, anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the roof, and the wonderful holiday just around the corner. Remember how you couldn't fall asleep? Clara felt like this, times 1,000. She couldn't calm down, and remember, she's eighty-two years old. People may have thought she was some crazy old lady, and she sure did look like it. Little did people know she was about to meet her daughter. Did I just say that? Yes, yes I did. Clara did indeed reunite with her daughter, but not quite yet. By the time Clara was in Iowa, she found the spot where Mrs. Brewer promised to meet her at. Yes, this was it! Clara saw a person approaching her! After a while she could tell that it was a woman. By the way, it's pouring rain, something I would expect to happen in an overly dramatic movie, but I read the little end piece at the end of the book, and it was really raining hard when this was going on. A woman is approaching Clara. Long story short, she saw that it was her daughter, and the day Clara was dreaming of became a reality.
"Forty-six years. More than five thousand miles. A thousand memories. A million tears. A lifetime of faith that, one day, despite all odds, this very moment would come to pass. How long was that hug? Imagine. (Lowery, Linda. One More Valley, One More Hill: The Story of Aunt Clara Brown. New York: Fudrick and Friends, Inc., 2002. p. 199.)"
By the way, when they began hugging, they fell into a muddy puddle and just lied there.
Pretty amazing stuff, right? This is a true story, it really happened.
Chapter 22
Chapter 22 simply sums everything up. So I'll do the same. Many news reporters wrote about her, and she became famous (hence the book written about her). Clara said:
"Oh, child, just stop and think how our Blessed Lord was crucified. Think how He suffered. My little sufferings was nothing, honey, and the Lord, He gave me strength to bear up under them. I can't complain. (Lowery, Linda. One More Valley, One More Hill: The Story of Aunt Clara Brown. New York: Fudrick and Friends, Inc., 2002. p. 204.)"
Clara died on October 26, 1885. Her last word was: "Mammy!"
The End
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| One More Valley, One More Hill The Story of Aunt Clara Brown by Linda Lowery |
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