Esther sees that Amy needs help and encourages her to pray. She sets up a prayer closet next to Amy’s room with a table and a footstool.
She even finds a picture of Our Lady in Aunt March’s house.
She thought it was of no great value, but, being appropriate, she borrowed it, well knowing that Madame would never know it, nor care if she did. It was, however, a very valuable copy of one of the famous pictures of the world, and Amy’s beauty-loving eyes were never tired of looking up at the sweet face of the Divine Mother, while her tender thoughts of her own were busy at her heart.
(Can we just take a moment to appreciate Esther’s evangelization savvy here? Gentle, bold, but not a bit pushy. I love it!)
On the table, Amy places her New Testament, a hymnbook, and “a vase always full of the best flowers Laurie brought her”.
“Esther had given her a rosary of black beads with a silver cross, but Amy hung it up and did not use it, feeling doubtful as to its fitness for Protestant prayers.”
Haley! I've been following your family forever--since you moved to Texas--and I've always felt you were a kindred spirit of the tribe of Joseph, but now I know you are. You basically described my family's experience with this version of Little Women too. We had the VHS and I even have the trailer that were before it memorized too--The Silkie and Nicolas Nickleby.
I had a disfunctional family and Little women and Harry Potter saved my childhood and my teen years. Thanks to these books I knew what kind of family I wanted. Marmee and Molly Weasley are my role model as mothers :)
As I was reading this, I remembered my bookish young self, but also just how much both the book and the movies of Little Women have seeped into my psyche. I enjoyed this essay the first time I read it and it continues to move me. Thanks for your remembrances, Haley, and for making all the connections that help us to analyze our own lives to see if we are becoming the people God created us to be. Merry Christmas!
Haley, this essay is beautiful. I have no personal recent history of family trauma - thanks be to God - but I married into a family marked by mental health trouble and unhealthy relationship skills and the trauma they bring. We now live near my in-laws, thousands of miles away from my family, and the years we have been here have been a sort of boot camp in becoming the matriarch and patriarch of the family in our mid-30s and shepherding our 4 children through the difficulties of loving broken people. Marmee has been immensely inspirational to me, along with Henri Nouwen’s book on the Prodigal Son - we are, all of us, both problematic brothers, he writes, but we are called to become the Father in the story, as all Christians are called to become like God the Father in real life. Thank you for helping me draw the connecting line between these two books that have been holding me up over the last 5 years (and Little Women for many years longer!). Merry Christmas!
Want you to know the sheer delight on the face of my 27 yo daughter when she opened up her mouse nuns Christmas book this morning made my year. Thank you.
Thank you for writing this! What a gift that your parents were able to heal their family of origin wounds and pass down love through good mental health and a happy home. It gives me hope! Merry Christmas!
"Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault," said Mrs. March, drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried even harder. Chapter 8.
I do not like the new one.
Your kids are so lucky to have their grannies around.
What a beautiful reflection. Little Women is one of those few and special books written on my heart, a book that has accompanied me at every new stage of my life. The March sisters, and Marmee, have felt like family to me in a way few other book characters have. I’ve seen myself in their triumphs and failures, and have found hope in their determination to become the holy, loving, and unique women God created them to be. Little Women reminds me that homemaking is a beautiful thing, and a powerful form of evangelization. What’s more, it can be the avenue by which God allows us to cultivate our unique gifts and talents, rather than being a hindrance to their development.
I’m tearing up. Only read the book once (the first one) and now I’m adding it mentally to my tbr list again! And I need to see the films I feel. It sounds like Marmee is to your mother as Emma Woodhouse was to me as a single woman - holding out hope and light that it might be different and can be different in the end
This was so lovely Haley and I relate to so much of it. little Women is story that just gets you deep down in your bones. Once it's hooked you, it's for life. And maybe it's late pregnancy hormones but it made me a little teary eyed too. Thank you for sharing! Merry Christmas!
Esther sees that Amy needs help and encourages her to pray. She sets up a prayer closet next to Amy’s room with a table and a footstool.
She even finds a picture of Our Lady in Aunt March’s house.
She thought it was of no great value, but, being appropriate, she borrowed it, well knowing that Madame would never know it, nor care if she did. It was, however, a very valuable copy of one of the famous pictures of the world, and Amy’s beauty-loving eyes were never tired of looking up at the sweet face of the Divine Mother, while her tender thoughts of her own were busy at her heart.
(Can we just take a moment to appreciate Esther’s evangelization savvy here? Gentle, bold, but not a bit pushy. I love it!)
On the table, Amy places her New Testament, a hymnbook, and “a vase always full of the best flowers Laurie brought her”.
“Esther had given her a rosary of black beads with a silver cross, but Amy hung it up and did not use it, feeling doubtful as to its fitness for Protestant prayers.”
Haley! I've been following your family forever--since you moved to Texas--and I've always felt you were a kindred spirit of the tribe of Joseph, but now I know you are. You basically described my family's experience with this version of Little Women too. We had the VHS and I even have the trailer that were before it memorized too--The Silkie and Nicolas Nickleby.
And I agree about adult Amy.
I had a disfunctional family and Little women and Harry Potter saved my childhood and my teen years. Thanks to these books I knew what kind of family I wanted. Marmee and Molly Weasley are my role model as mothers :)
As I was reading this, I remembered my bookish young self, but also just how much both the book and the movies of Little Women have seeped into my psyche. I enjoyed this essay the first time I read it and it continues to move me. Thanks for your remembrances, Haley, and for making all the connections that help us to analyze our own lives to see if we are becoming the people God created us to be. Merry Christmas!
I have never read Little Women but now I want to. This was a beautiful essay. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
It's a treat! There's great audiobook versions, too.
Haley, this essay is beautiful. I have no personal recent history of family trauma - thanks be to God - but I married into a family marked by mental health trouble and unhealthy relationship skills and the trauma they bring. We now live near my in-laws, thousands of miles away from my family, and the years we have been here have been a sort of boot camp in becoming the matriarch and patriarch of the family in our mid-30s and shepherding our 4 children through the difficulties of loving broken people. Marmee has been immensely inspirational to me, along with Henri Nouwen’s book on the Prodigal Son - we are, all of us, both problematic brothers, he writes, but we are called to become the Father in the story, as all Christians are called to become like God the Father in real life. Thank you for helping me draw the connecting line between these two books that have been holding me up over the last 5 years (and Little Women for many years longer!). Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for sharing this touching story with us again. What a testament to the power of story.
Want you to know the sheer delight on the face of my 27 yo daughter when she opened up her mouse nuns Christmas book this morning made my year. Thank you.
Oh that makes me so happy!
Thank you for writing this! What a gift that your parents were able to heal their family of origin wounds and pass down love through good mental health and a happy home. It gives me hope! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
I used to have a cat named Marmee and have a current cat named Margot, so I had to pause about 2 paragraphs in to smile!
I like the old movie version.
I love the book.
"Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault," said Mrs. March, drawing the blowzy head to her shoulder and kissing the wet cheek so tenderly that Jo cried even harder. Chapter 8.
I do not like the new one.
Your kids are so lucky to have their grannies around.
What a beautiful reflection. Little Women is one of those few and special books written on my heart, a book that has accompanied me at every new stage of my life. The March sisters, and Marmee, have felt like family to me in a way few other book characters have. I’ve seen myself in their triumphs and failures, and have found hope in their determination to become the holy, loving, and unique women God created them to be. Little Women reminds me that homemaking is a beautiful thing, and a powerful form of evangelization. What’s more, it can be the avenue by which God allows us to cultivate our unique gifts and talents, rather than being a hindrance to their development.
I’m tearing up. Only read the book once (the first one) and now I’m adding it mentally to my tbr list again! And I need to see the films I feel. It sounds like Marmee is to your mother as Emma Woodhouse was to me as a single woman - holding out hope and light that it might be different and can be different in the end
This was so lovely Haley and I relate to so much of it. little Women is story that just gets you deep down in your bones. Once it's hooked you, it's for life. And maybe it's late pregnancy hormones but it made me a little teary eyed too. Thank you for sharing! Merry Christmas!