29 An Epitaph on My Dear and Ever-Honored Mother, Mrs. Dorothy Dudley, Who Deceased December 27 1643, and of Her Age 61
Anne Bradstreet
Here lyes
A worthy Matron of unspotted life,
A loving Mother and obedient wife,
A friendly Neighbor pitiful to poor,
Whom oft she fed and clothed with her store,
To Servants wisely aweful but yet kind,
And as they did so they reward did find;
A true Instructer of her Family,
The which she ordered with dexterity.
The publick meetings ever did frequent,
And in her Closet constant hours she spent;
Religious in all her words and wayes
Preparing still for death till end of dayes;
Of all her Children, Children lived to see,
Then dying, left a blessed memory.
(1643)
Source:
Anne Bradstreet and Her Time, Helen Campbell, Public Domain