● ● ● all day, and on Sunday morning the clergyman, “Father” Clark, called in to see her on his way to church. He felt it necessary to prepare her for the worst, prayed with her, and agreed to return following the afternoon service.13 It was perhaps the gloomy theological comfort he offered that roused her to more strenuous spiritual effort. At any rate when her friend, Mrs. Ira P. Brown, who had driven over to see her about noon, was taking her leave, Mrs. Patterson astonished her by saying: “When you come down the next time, I will be sitting up in the next room. I am going to walk in.”14
Nine-year-old Arietta Brown was with her mother, and in later years she recalled Mrs. Brown’s exclamation, “Mary, what on earth are you talking about!” But when they returned in the evening, Mrs. Patterson ● ● ●