Things Treasured, Things Loved

“To love abundantly is to live life abundantly , and to love forever is to live forever.”

Henry DRUMMOND

On the way to teach my genealogy class this morning an interview of the poet, Kevin YOUNG, is playing on NPR. The host asks YOUNG: ” Do you feel the dead are around you? Do you feel the strength and the power of ancestors?” Out loud I answer, “Yes!”

I don’t remember how long I have had this small book, but from the moment I laid eyes on it, I loved it. It belonged to my grandfather Milo MOSIER and I very much loved him. We shared a love of many things including poetry and gardens, and especially violets. The book came, or rather was claimed by me, after my grandfather died in 1968. His funeral was on my birthday. Something a teenager does not forget. My father had the book for a time, but then gave it to me.

The binding is falling apart. The soft suede calfskin cover is fraying. The reverse gilding creating the title has lost part of its luster. As we age, things do. It is inscribed, “To Milo From Mother With Fervent Wishes for a Merry Christmas Nov 30, 1918.“

It is titled “The Greatest Thing in the World” by Henry DRUMMOND. It has been a comfort to me to read it, not often, but sprinkled throughout my life.  He asks, “What is the Greatest Thing in the World?” And he answers it with a polemic from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Specifically, “The greatest of these is Love.”

Not long ago I mentioned it to someone who studies the bible. And then a little while later, I asked myself “who” is Henry Drummond? As a teenager I would have turned to the Encyclopedia Britannica and scanned its pages of small type for a description, but now days the answer is a few clicks away on our cell phones. Henry Drummond, 17 August 1851 – 11 March 1897, was a Scottish evangelist, biologist, writer and lecturer. Scottish I mused. A trip to Scotland is already booked for October. So I read on: Born in Stirling, Scotland died in Turnbridge Wells, England. Buried in Stirling at Valley Cemetery. I look up Valley cemetery which leads to this lovely video.

I had been to Stirling Castle ten years ago but lacked the time to explore the cemetery. As it happens we are staying at the building at the very bottom of the video, below Holy Rude Church. The serendipity! Henry DRUMMOND’s grave is located just north-east of the church and is marked by a distinctive, large red granite Celtic cross. Well that should not be hard to find.  l learned that Henry’s uncle, William, has a much more unique monument which every day, I dare say hundreds of people admire. The Star Pyramid and Martyr’s Monument and the adjacent DRUMMOND Pleasure Garden were commissioned and financed by William DRUMMOND in 1859.  William was a prosperous Stirling seed merchant and local evangelist In 1814, he and his son opened a shop W. DRUMMOND & Son’s on the corner of Baker Street and Bow Street in Stirling. When I looked up what kind of seed they sold it was flowers and vegetables and grains and seed potatoes. As a gardener I feel I will be among kindred spirits. Now several more things to add to my pilgrimage to Stirling, Scotland.

It just dawned on my yesterday to pay closer attention to the date of the book’s inscription Nov 30 2018. In 1918 my grandfather was in France as an Army medic. Nov 11th the armistice was signed. This book was sent by his mother Lulu to her son, in the hope it arrived to Milo by Christmas 1918. Because I had transcribed his mother Lulu’s diary I could find the relevant entries

• Tue Nov 5 – Still no letter from Milo. I await his address slip anxious as I cannot mail him his Christmas box without it.
• Friday November 8 – Two letters came to brighten up the day. One from Milo and one from Allie. But Milo didn’t send his slip for his Christmas box. I am very sorry I am afraid when it comes it will be too late as they have to be sent by Nov 20...Milo wrote from the front and says he has a fine bunch of souvenirs for me. He writes very entertainingly of army life at the front.
• Nov 30 Sat. – …go to Berkeley red cross for that everlastingly elusive Christmas Carton. Last day. The card I have chosen to send bears this appropriate verse…I arrived at the Red Cross 1:15 and was the last one to send a box over seas from Berkeley. I came home afoot Leo trotting along in and out of doorways up and down steps banks and hillocks, tireless. I was tired enough when I got home.

To my lad in Khaki
Heaven possess you, fortune bless you all along the unseen way,
Forward faring, gladly sharing
In the nations testing days
Courage fill you service thrill you
Victory crown each brave advance
Comrads cheer you God be near you,
Soldier boy “Some where in France.”

• Jan 23 Fri. — …I am in a flutter of anticipation over Milos possible arrival in N. York.
• Sun Feb 9 – …We have had several letters from Milo lately saying among other things that he had received his Christmas box and that he was coming home soon he thought.
• Mar 30 Sun …I had a letter from Milo about two weeks ago he had written it so long ago that it wasn’t very newsy. He didn’t expect to get away from France for a while probably until spring. He was doing nurse duty and said it was a great life if you didn’t weaken.
• May 11 – Mothers day. Just 1 yr since my Milo gave me a fine bunch of carnations in lovely Ca. Valley [Castrol Valley] . I have some of them waxed…Milo should be home soon.
• May 17 –Saw in the paper that Milo’s regiment was on their way home.
• May 18 …He [Milo] is bronzed, bigger than when he left nervous and happy to be home. Likes S. F. better than New York or any other place…Milo is home and I am glad.

The “Greatest Thing in the World” was originally delivered as an address to a large body of Students at Northfield, Massachusettes in the summer of 1897 [Thomas Aquinas University].

Milo, when still just a lad of 19, far from home in France, at the close of the first World War receives “The Greatest Thing in the World” from his mother as a Christmas gift. It travels from Berkeley to France and back to the Presidio in San Francisco with Milo—and kept by him for the rest of his life. Passed on to my Dad and then to me.

Someone in my class asked why Lulu would pick this book. Lulu grew up in the Purple Cane Community of Nebraska which was largely populated with Scots who had immigrated to Nebraska in the 1870’s and 1880’s to be cattle farmers. Lulu’s father, James L. PADEN’s grandfather immigrated from Ireland to Maryland by 1798. But like my grandfather and his mother never lost sight of their Scottish roots. My grandfather was a great admirer of Robbie Burns and my great grandmother notes in her diary that she is reading Sir Walter Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake.” So that through line reaches out to me. Now as I prepare my trip to Scotland, a pilgrimage is planned to the grave of Henry DRUMMOND. Henry never married nor had any children. However, his book binds 4 generations of my family together through his words of love.

To be continued…

“The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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