Page:Lest We Forget The Sisters of Providence in Civil War Service.djvu/74

 Service Sister Athanasius felt twitches of rheumatism. Severe attacks followed with increasing frequency. Finally, eighteen years before her death she became completely disabled and suffered intense pain, notwithstanding everything that was done to alleviate it.

In the earlier years of her sickness she could read and enjoy the conversation of others. When she learned, in 1887, that the people of Indianapolis proposed erecting a monument as a memorial to the fallen heroes, her delight was enthusiastic. She talked about it all the time, and she wanted it to be "grand, worthy." Her heart would have it, though she could not so state it, just as our beloved Whitcomb Riley expressed it: