The twin sisters,

On March 15, 1865, in Cambridge (Massachusetts), two twins were born, daughters of the couple Lewis E. Waterman. Only one survived, to whom they gave the name Rose. At that time they already had two daughters of four years. The couple believed in the teachings of the orthodox doctrine; but they knew of spiritualism and considered it a derision, particularly Mrs. Waterman. If by chance she attended a conference or a session, it was for the sake of distraction. Before she spoke, little Rose manifested a great love for flowers, becoming particularly fond of rosebuds; to please her, they would tie artificial flowers to her breast, which were replaced when they lost their freshness.

When Rose began to walk on her own, she would flee from her sisters and seemed to feel great pleasure in amusing herself alone or with an imaginary company, for her parents had noticed that she always held out her hand to receive a second piece of apple or of cake, as if she wished to provide for the needs of another child.

She began to speak at two years of age. One day, when she was amusing herself with her invisible companion, they asked who it was that was playing with her. “My little sister Lily,” she answered. – “Why do you ask for two apples? – I want one for Lily.” When visitors asked her name, she answered: “Rosebud.” – “Is it for this that you always wear it tied to your breast? – No, it is so that my little sister Lily may have one. – Where is your little sister Lily? – In heaven. – Where is heaven? – Here, my little sister Lily is here.” Many similar questions were put to this interesting child, and her answers were always consistent, implying the presence of her little Lily, not only playing with her by day, but being her bedmate, for Rose would take her pillow in her arms, caress it, and call it her little Lily; she would make a description of her to her parents, saying that she had beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, a beautiful dress, and wanted her mother to make her a similar one. One day in the month of January 1868, they found her with a bud of fresh and fragrant roses. Where could she have obtained it? it was a mystery to the family, because there were no such flowers in the house and no one had come who could have given them to her. “Where did you get this pretty flower?” they asked her. – “It was my Lily who gave it to me,” she answered. At other times it were thoughts that were given to her. The parents gave no importance whatever to such facts, when one day someone spoke of spiritualism and advised Mr. Waterman to consult a medium. Having followed the advice, he obtained for himself the proof that Lily was not an imaginary being, but the Spirit of his daughter, twin of Rose. Mrs. Waterman having become a writing medium, they obtained, through her intermediary, communications from various Spirits, who gave them notable proofs of identity, notably one from the Spirit Abby, an aunt of Mr. Waterman, with whom she had passed her youth. These proofs, joined to the acts and gestures of Rose with her little Lily, proved to the Waterman spouses the reality of the communication of Spirits with mortals.

One morning Rose brought to her mother a lock of hair, saying: “Mama, my little Lily told me to give you this.” The mother, much astonished, felt a desire to write and obtained a communication from the Spirit of Mr. Waterman’s aunt, in which the latter said that this hair was hers and that soon they would also have the hair of little Lily. Indeed, that same night they found a lock in Rose’s bed, golden as they had never seen another before. (Extracted from the Spiritual Magazine of London.)

[A. DESLIENS.]