Tears

Brigham Young’s 1856 call for rescue included the request for the Saints in Utah to open their hearts and homes to the suffering Saints upon their arrival in the Valley. He took some of the most needy to his own home, stating:

“I will take in all that others will not take. I have house room enough to accommodate the whole of them, if it is necessary.”

This little girl, Maren Kjirstine Johansen, who had lost her parents, two brothers, and her lower legs during the emigration, had also been separated from her remaining four siblings for almost a year. When her two brothers first saw her again in December 1856, she said,

“I told them not to cry so, for I would have my feet again when I got to heaven.”