Written by Junior B. Charlton
“To open” well describes the month of April. Buds of many leaves and flowers begin to come forth. The season of warmth and sunshine is opening at last. In Plain City, no other month makes a greater outdoor appearance than April does. Flocks of birds fly northward and the animal kingdom prepares to deliver their offspring and raise their young. It was no different in the Skeen family as delivered to Lyman Stoddard and Electa Philomelia on April 28, 1887, was a beautiful baby girl. She was perfect in every sense. She had a full head of black hair and a smile that captivated the attention of her nine brothers and sisters. Being the fourth girl and with six older brothers she soon became the centerfold in the Skeen home.
This bundle of joy was given the name of Sabra Alice. Sabra was her grandmother’s name but where did Alice come from? She was delivered into a home where her mother had an inborn love of home which she instilled into each of her children, including Sabra Alice at an early age. She was born into a home where love and devotion was practiced and each new arrival was welcomed with affection from father and mother.
Sabra’s childhood was a busy and happy one. How happy she must have been when a little sister, Isabell, arrived into the Skeen home. Sabra Alice soon took over the responsibility of helping mother feed, change, bathe and care for this little one. They soon became best buddies and Sabra was there to direct and protect every move of her new-found friend.
“In the spring of 1891, the Skeen homelike was a perfect and complete as a paradise on earth. Not a shadow to warn of the great shadow hovering near.” The middle of April life changed drastically for the Skeen family. Sabra Alice contracted Scarlet Fever, which is a streptococcus disease with a high fever. Complications set in and delirious from the fever she lay lifeless in her mother’s arms as she quietly followed the light at the end of the darkness into the arms of her grandparents, Joseph and Maria Amanda who took her by the hands and accompanied her the rest of the way into eternity. Her spirit left her small body on April 20, 1891, eight days before her 4th birthday. Eight days later on Sabra Alice’s birthday, she was standing by the light at the end of the tunnel in her white attire to welcome her mother and unborn baby into eternity.
Sabra Alice Skeen’s small body was laid to rest in the Plain City Cemetery by the side of her grandfather, Joseph, a stalwart pioneer.
As her sister Electa (Lell) would say, her spirit was just too Celestial and pure to remain in mortal life. She has just moved on to a grander sphere to prepare the way for the rest of us.
