Lucy Mack Smith and the Martyrdom

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June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in Carthage, Illinois, shouting and shooting, their hearts bent on murder. When it was over two brothers wrongfully imprisoned, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, were dead. A short time later the two martyred sons were taken home to Nauvoo. Thousands lined the road in mourning as they passed. Their families grieved and awaited their return. They were taken to the Mansion House in Nauvoo where friends prepared their bodies for viewing. A short time later the family entered the room. Joseph’s wife Emma attempted several times to cross the room to her husband but each time she fainted. Finally, she was helped from the room. Mary Fielding came next. “She trembled at every step, and nearly fell, but reached her husband’s body….a gushing plaintive wail burst from her lips….Her grief seemed to consume her and she lost all power of utterance.”

It was then that the venerable and aged mother, Lucy Mack Smith, came into the room. “I had for a long time,” she said, “braced every nerve, roused every energy of my soul, and called upon God to strengthen me, but when I entered the room and saw my murdered sons extended both at once before my eyes and heard the sobs and groans of my family…it was too much; I sank back, crying to the Lord in the agony of my soul, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken this family!”

“I have taken them to myself, that they might have rest,” came a voice in reply.

As she stood between the bodies of her sons, resting a hand upon each one, looking down at their peaceful smiling countenances, she heard their voices in her mind, “Mother, weep not for us, we have overcome the world by love; we carried to them the gospel, that their souls might be saved; they slew us for our testimony, and thus placed us beyond their power; their ascendancy is for a moment, ours is an eternal triumph.”

One month later, Lucy would lose another son because of the mobs, Samuel. Eight sons she had borne, six she had reared to manhood, and now, only one remained. If ever a woman could curse God and wish to die it was Mother Lucy—‘life is so unfair!’ But she did not.

Near the end of her life, Enoch Tripp paid her a visit in Nauvoo. When Lucy learned he was from Salt Lake, she put reached up from her bed, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him, declaring that she could now die in peace, having seen someone from the Valley. She told him that she wanted to go west too but was prevented. She bade him give her love to Brigham, Heber, and all the other righteous saints, for her heart was with them. She passed away May 4, 1856, true and faithful to the end.

Source: History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, p. 323-325

Lucy Mack Smith: First Mother of the Restoration by History of the Saints (DVD)