Death of Florence McGregor, Petoskey, Emmet County, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Gail Mazzie. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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Petoskey Record


Death of Florence McGregor,
        Death entered the Methodist parsonage the other day and plucked a fair blossom.
When death comes to the middle aged
and old there is an element of sadness in it, because one thinks involuntarily of the 
"might have beens" of life.  Very few are the lives so rich in love; in development of 
the best and noblest; so fruitful in results; so rounded out in character, so benificent 
to others; that one feels when death comes that the life was complete and the end 
fitting.  But it does not strike us so, when-not in bony and repulsive form, but with 
angel's wings and loving aspect he comes to gently lift the baby from the clinging 
mother's arms and carry it to bloom in the garden of the Lord, forever saved from 
sorrow and pain: or when he comes to a beautiful child standing on the threshold of 
life, as yet unstained by sin, and carries her away.  We are never sorry for the favored
one.  They are the chosen ones.  There is never anything sad, or depressing, or 
repulsive to us in the death of the young and innocent, though we may be sorry for the 
grieving ones left behind.  So when death comes, as a messenger only, and claims little 
Florence McGregor for the Lord, we cannot feel sorry for her, though we can feel sorry 
for the family circle, which is bereft.  She was a bright, and 'beautiful and promising 
child nearly eleven years old-the oldest of the family, and died of cerebro-spinal-
meningetis, after a brief illness.  The funeral occurred from the residence this morning; 
Presiding Elder Kellogg in charge, with a number of sympathizing brother ministers in 
attendance.  Her schoolmates with whom she was a great favorite, attended in a body and 
the floral tributes were abundant and beautiful.  To Mr. and Mrs. McGregor the Record
tenders a very hearty and earnest sympathy in this, the first affliction which has 
fallen upon their family circle.


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