Broken Love Stories

As much as I adore a good love story, my heart simply breaks over a tragic one.

 Last night I started reading "The History of Joseph Smith By His Mother". It's exactly what it says it is. It's a history written by Lucy Mack Smith about her family growing up and then more specifically about Joseph Smith Jr's life. Ohh I'm loving reading about the tender heart of a mother for her children. I'm not very far along in it, but I'm rather enjoying it so far.

In the second chapter, she told the story about her brother, Jason Mack. I'll paraphrase for ya.

Jason was a "studious and manly" boy. He became a minister at the age of 20 and fell in love with a beautiful and wealthy young woman named Esther Bruce.  Everyone who knew Esther loved her. She was smart, beautiful, well-mannered and kind. Pretty soon Jason had convinced her that she couldn't live without him. So they were engaged to be married! Yay!!

When it was about time to be married, Jason's father (Joseph Smith Jr's grandfather) received a letter from Liverpool saying that there was a heavy debt due to him that was ready to be collected. Apparently Jason had to come along with his father to collect it so the wedding had to be postponed (I don't get that... must've been an 18th century thing.) So with a heavy heart, he left his beautiful betrothed with an agreement that he would write to her once every three months and as soon as he returned they would be married.

The plot thickens. There was a rotten scoundrel (excuse the harsh words, but I am furious with this man!) who worked at the post office who happened to have a bit of a crush on this Esther Bruce...an engaged woman!!! So in his desire to thwart Jason's efforts, he used what ever he could to dissuade Esther from waiting for and marrying Jason. In the meantime, he detained Jason's letters to Esther to help his filthy cause.

Well, Jason and his father got stuck in Liverpool and weren't able to return at their scheduled time. When Jason had been gone for two years, that awful man told Esther that Jason was dead. Esther did not believe him the first time, but after awhile her worst fears were falsely confirmed. But she still refused to marry the post office man.

However as time went on, and as the post man persisted, she agreed to marry him. Four months after the marriage, Jason returned to America. He immediately went to Esther's father's home  and waited for his betrothed to come home. He had no idea that he was actually waiting for a married woman.  When Esther returned to  "the same room where he had wooed her and obtained her consent to be his", she saw Jason sitting in the room. When she recognized who it was, she "clasped her hands in agony and, with a piercing shriek, fell lifeless to the floor."  
Oh my goodness, that part breaks my heart. Can you even imagine??

Jason then learned that the postman had kept all of his letters from Esther and had lied to her of his "death". Not seeing anything that could be done, he went to sea and lived single until he was 50.

When Esther was revived from her collapse,  and understood the situation better, she fell sick and never got better. She lived, or rather lingered, for two years until she died, "the victim of disappointment".

Is that not the saddest thing you've ever heard?? A real life love story, broken by a greedy, deceitful post man and a town by the awful name of Liverpool. Seriously, what a gross name!

I'm sorry if this post put a damper on your day, if so you can find much happier love story posts here, here and here :)

Or simply watch George Paddley and Sarah Anne Frank's love story on 17 Miracles. Oh my gosh, he loves her so much!

Her:"Not sufficient materials but must be completed regardless? Doesn't that make you crazy?"
Him: "No, that does not make me crazy. It is you who makes me crazy."

Her: "My betrothed spent that day as the Savior would have, helping those in need. I wondered how he could bear it, walking the day through that bitter water. Later, I would wonder how I could be so weak as to allow him to do so.... George was not the only one to give so much of himself that day, but he was the only one that I loved so much."

Her: "George have you begun a journal?"
Him: "Perhaps. Or perhaps it is thoughts of you."

Him:
"Hast thou a heart, my dearest maid,
to freely give away?
Nay, do not blush nor be afraid
the simple truth to say.

For love's a power none can withstand,
which even death cannot part.
But I'd not wish to have thy hand
unless I have thy heart.

For all that's mine, I give to you,
not holding back a part.What else might I do,
my darling Sarah,to gather in your heart?

Others say that they have seen angels watching from the bluff
But I have seen thine lovely face, and for my dear Sarah, that is enough"

Them: "It will all be worth it"

Their love story also broke my heart, but I'm sooo glad the movie included the last part about President Faust.
"When James E.Faust heard the story of Sarah Anne Franks and George Paddley, he wept.
He called theirs the greatest love story of the Mormon frontier.
In 1997, he asked that they be sealed for time and all eternity."

'It will all be worth it."

If you haven't seen it yet. Go now.

Love, Noelle