Joseph once told W. W. Phelps and wife that they should
never taste death.
The manner of the fulfillment of that promise is rather
singular. They supposed, and so did all that knew of the promise, that they
were to never die, but the Lord does business in his own way and his way is not
as the way of man.
Before Brother Phelps died he lost all judgment, lost all
his mind reason, consciousness and all sense. He knew nothing, not even his
name, nor how to eat, thus being unable to taste of anything; not even death.
His mind gradually dwindled, withered and dried up. His wife was killed
instantly, so quickly that she had no time to taste of death. She was killed as
she was dipping up a bucket of water from the ditch, a gust of wind hurled a
board from a house and is struck her on the neck breaking it instantly. She
never tasted of death nor even felt the blow. (Oliver B. Huntington, History
of the Life of Oliver B. Huntington Written by Himself, 1878-1900
[Self-published, 1900], 9)
"Her flesh shall never see corruption." Similar
to this promise to Br. Phelps, was the promise to my mother that her flesh
should never see corruption. The family all supposed as well as mother, that
she would never die, but she died and was three years in the ground, and when
the old burying ground in Nauvoo was removed out of the limits of the city her
body was found to be solid, firm and sound as a board or bone. Her whole body
was full, plump and looked natural in feature without a "smell of
corruption or decay." (Ibid., 9-10)
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