An elderly woman's return to the Church after fifty years

“A few days ago, while attending to missionary duties, I discovered a case similar in many respects to that recorded above. I met a sweet, kindly-faced old lady, who some time ago passed the three-score and ten mark. She invited me into her humble room, and when I had taken a proffered seat, she told me the following story: 'When I was a girl of seventeen I became acquainted with a young man who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I went with him to the meetings and became deeply impressed with the truths which I heard expounded by the Elders. I was especially impressed with the hymns, and took delight in singing them. Some of them I remember now. (Here she paused and began to recite, "O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell !") We became lovers—the young man and I—and finally decided, provided my parents consented to the union, to get married. But to our great sorrow, this they refused to do. I was forbidden to keep company with the young man, or to go to another meeting of the Saints. And all this because he was a "Mormon," although, to tell the truth, I don't believe my parents had any knowledge whatever of the teachings or character of the people whom they had so unjustly condemned. So we came to the parting of the ways, he turning to the right, I to the left. Like a mother bird that had been robbed of her young, I went home to grieve, over my lost love. Some time after our separation, the young man sailed away to the Zion of the West, and I have never seen him since. I understand he married a good woman, a true Latter-day Saint, by whom he raised an honorable family... A few days ago I met an Elder of the Church, and old memories were at once revived. I know that your people are the chosen of God ; I am going to your meetings again, and hope to be numbered with the Saints of the Lord in the near future. I thank my Creator for preserving me to see this day. "Time corrects all mistakes." — J. L. C. — Millennial Star 69:27”