Margaret Belnap/Mathias J. Benson

Mr Smith wanted me to read this last night. I began reading it out loud, but towards the end got a little choked up. He said that one line was his favorite quote. At first I was getting worried he was trying to tell me something about his headaches (that's me), but the message was sweet - that through it all - we too believe in the same eternal concept. We do want to be worthy of each other, so regardless of what happens in this life, we can be comforted by the simple, yet profound truth that we can be with each other for eternity. There is no person on this planet that I'd rather spend eternity with. I think about that when it comes to Eric as well as Lexi. I wish more people understood, it's not about until death do us part like so many people are used to hearing. There is something greater. It's eternal marriage & an eternal sealing to your children. 
All that is left is for us to be worthy of it.

Margaret & Mathias are Eric's great grandparents on his father's mother's side. Eric mentioned that his grandmother, Ruth, was born 3 months previous to her mother's death.

During the last few years of her life, Margaret was subject to severe headaches. On the night of 7 December 1922 she had one of those headaches. About four a.m. the next day she passed away. At this point we turn to the words of Mathias as he wrote them.

"I heard her get up and come out to the stove. I immediately got up and my first thought was to make up a fire as the room was getting somewhat cold, but she said 'oh hold my head a minute its just splitting.' I started to stroke her forehead but she said 'oh press on my temples' which were the last words she spoke. I stepped back of the chair and placed my hands over hers with which she was already pressing on her temples. I stood there just a moment when without warning or sign of any kind she slipped from my hands and fell face downward on the floor. I picked her up as quick as I could and dashed a part of a glass of water in her face thinking she had fainted but she just gasped a few times and it was all over. Whatever the cause she certainly was snatched from me without an opportunity of securing aid of any kind and though I cannot understand why she should be called away when she was needed here so much I am willing to leave that in the hands of the Lord and try to be submissive to his will and in the meantime strive with all the powers I possess to make myself worthy of her trusting the Lord for strength to accomplish this. For my one great consolation is that she is mine for all eternity if I can make myself worthy of her. And though her spirit had fled yet she certainly looked pure and sweet to me, at least, as she lay clothed in her Temple robes." She was buried at Moreland.