Note to friends from Grace McClurg, November 29, 1921

[1921]
En route to China,
Nov. 29

Dear friends:
So many of you have asked about my attitude toward going back. I'm going to write just a little note out of the bottom of my heart, very, very personal. Last night when all the little finishing things were attended to and we were ready to go to bed, my mother looked 20 yrs. older, than her usual self. Do you wonder that I was a long time in going to sleep? I am only human, and home ties are harder to loosen now than they were the first time. As I lay there thinking, two words came to me, which we have been accustomed to use lately – “supreme sacrifice,” and my parents are making it. It was almost in bitterness that I felt that if they had to pay a price one of there are very own, there was no price in the way of hard work and giving to make this old world better, which the rest of parents ought not to pay. In the dead of night it seemed that you parents who call yourselves Christian owe the Lord a huge thank offering of money and ervis until you are called upon to give one of your own children. Mind you, I am glad to go and my parents are proud to have me go, but it is hard, hard.

Lovingly,
Grace McClurg

I do appreciate all you are doing.