The Heart of the Family: Week 4

Saying goodbye to the Eliots

The Eliots of Damerosehay by Elizabeth Goudge

“In the few minutes that remained to her, she would try to make of her discomfort what Jacob must have made of his when he laid his head on a stone for a pillow. It should be her resting-place while she made a Jacob's ladder of the beauty about her. The attempt to do this was one of her favourite recreations now, as it must have been of Saint Augustine.

‘Our soul riseth out of its mortal weariness unto Thee, helped upward by the things Thou hast made.’

She could take them one by one, each a rung in the ladder, and mount… Resolutely she decided to regard the asters and michaelmas daisies in the border with that profound astonishment and deep thankfulness that would lift her soul upon the first rung.”

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Heart of the Family

Note: Book chat today! See the zoom link below.

We talked last week about how much ground Goudge can cover without plot. But this week, there is a bit more going on in the usually quiet compass of the Eliot family. George is gravely sick and Sally ready to deliver, so we spend some time with Lucilla as she processes all of this excitement and faces some of her final battles within her own soul.

Foundations of home