On this page
-
Text (1)
-
14 AMALIE SIEVER1NG.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
^ Amalie Wilheimine Sieyekin© Was Born I...
But tlie time had now come when Ainalie felt lierself called on to take a step which in the s of the -world appeared very singular .
eye The cholera , that new terror of our times , was sweeping over Europe with desolating * swiftnessand as it approached _lier native city she
took a resolution which need , not have surprised any who knew her thoroughly , and were aware how earnestly she sought Divine direction
in everything , great or small , and never allowed any considerations to "withhold her from _, doing what she had once become convinced it
taking was her are duty thus to set do . forth Her in feelings a letter with to , H regard .: " For to this as long new under as the
cholera shall continue to prevail here , and it is now eight days since it broke out , I intend to devote myself to Plospital service . My
dear mother has given me her blessing upon it , and I have arranged with a dear good irl to fill my place in the classes , though no doubt
g the school will be but scantily attended on account of the anxiety of the parents at such a time . As with everything unusual , so no
doubt this step will be judged of very variously , and while some will probably make far more of it than there is in reality , many
• will blame and some ridicule me ; but , if I can make all rig-lit with God and own consciencesuch opinions will little affect me .
my I have not the my least fear of infection , and enter the hospital as coolly as I used to into school-roomand the doctors all agree that
this fearlessness go is the my very best preservative , against the disease , professional _nurses scarcely ever dying of it , so that you see you
have no grounds for being anxious _* about me . I cannot deny that there is a possibility that God may call nie from the hospital service
to His service above , but then would that not be a sure sign that I had lived long enough upon earth , and do you not believe that when
He summons me to die He will prepare me for death , and make it the beginning of a better life for meso that the thought of dying
in the hospital has no terror for me . " , Her first step was to insert in one of the newspapers a call to Christian women to associate with
her in a Christian spirit for the nursing of the sick , but her call met with no onseand she thereupon offered her individual services to
mone the governors d thither resp on of , the the admission newly-built of Choler the first a Hosp female ital , patient and was on sum the
-13 th of October , 1831 . She took leave of her most intimate friends and of her beloved foster-mother , who now began almost to repent
of the consent she had given , but though poor Amalie naturally felt the parting very much , she could not and dared not draw back ,
and in the certainty that she had fully gained a higher consent , went coolly and courageousl 5 y to the work . The letters she wrote hl during fumi her
eight weeksstay in the hospital had first to be thorougy gated and then transcribed elsewhere , and were of course written amid a hundred interruptionsbut when the position of the writer is
considered , they afford a beautiful , picture of the humility and noble simplicity of her character . From this correspondence we learn that the
governors were ready to pay her every attention , but that , except dining
14 Amalie Siever1ng.
14 AMALIE SIEVER 1 NG .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1860, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031860/page/14/
-