Named for her grandmother, Drusilla Dickenson Hartley, my third great grandmother, was born in 1824 in Pennsylvania. Her mother passed away when she was ten and her father soon followed leaving her an orphan at the age of 11. Eventually Druscilla moved with her oldest brother’s family to Indiana where in 1842 at the age of 18, she became a single mother giving birth to her first son, Martin.
Though Drusilla did not share the faith of her brother and sister-in-law, in 1844 she and her son moved with them to Macedonia, Illinois. Her brother began helping in the effort to complete the Nauvoo temple and on August 28, 1844, Drusilla married Joshua Parker who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints several years earlier in New York City. Joshua adopted her son, Martin, and they had a child of their own all while persecution intensified in and around Nauvoo. In February of 1846 wagons ventured out onto the frozen Mississippi, headed west.
Joshua and Drusilla joined other saints who instead of heading west, went south to St. Louis where Drusilla was united by baptism to her husband’s faith in December of 1846. Over the next several years, Drusilla gave birth to three children, two of whom died as infants and their little family moved first from St. Louis north nearly 200 miles to Bonaparte, Iowa and then 250 miles west to Kanesville, Iowa to rejoin the main body of the church.
On May 21, 1852, Drusilla gave birth to her first daughter, Mary Melissa, in Kanesville, Iowa and in early July, Joshua and Drusilla joined a handcart attachment of the Robert Wimmer Wagon Company. A cabinet maker and carpenter by trade, Joshua created a suspended cradle on their cart that carried their daughter to the Salt Lake Valley where Drusilla would spend the remaining thirty nine years of her life.
Like Drusilla, each life comes with mistakes, detours, faith, heart break, joy and persistence as we travel our own path. Through each adventure of our lives, the Savior, Jesus Christ, beckons, “Come, Follow Me”. Wherever we are, whatever our path, He knows the way and can lead us home, mend our hearts and fulfill our deepest desires.
“The Savior invites us, each day, to set aside our comforts and securities and join Him on the journey of discipleship. There are many bends in this road. There are hills, valleys, and detours. There may even be metaphorical spiders, trolls, and even a dragon or two. But if you stay on the path and trust in God, you will eventually find the way to your glorious destiny and back to your heavenly home.” (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, October 2019)