From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

This was another day that I had to call on Tante Esther. Grandmother sent me there with Alma while she went downtown shopping. But Alma couldn’t wait because she promised to call on Lizzie and so she left me there all alone with Tante Esther and her maid and I had to wait until Grandmother came later. Tante Esther wanted to be very polite and entertain me, but she said that she had nothing for a little girl to play with but would I like to see her shroud? I didn’t know what a shroud was but I said yes of course, I’d love to see it. So she told the maid to open the bottom drawer of her wardrobe and bring it out so that I could see it. It looked just like a very ugly nightgown with a high neck and long sleeves and I didn’t know why she would call it by another name. I didn’t know what to say so I just asked her for another gumdrop. She said I could have the gumdrop but first she wanted to tell me something solemn. She said she supposed that I thought that I was looking at a nightgown but it wasn’t. It was a dress that she was going to be buried in some day. I asked when did she think that was going to be. She said that she didn’t know and she seemed a little angry, and she said that it would be a long while yet, at least she hoped so, but whenever God was ready for her, she was ready to go to Him. I thought that if I were God I would be very anxious for Tante Esther to be there in heaven, just to be certain that everything was clean and there was not a speck of dust anywhere, but I didn’t say anything. I did ask her if Uncle Samuel wore something like a shroud when he died and she said that he did, that he wore exactly the same thing. I said that it must be odd for him to be in a dress and I would have thought he would have a shroud that had pants. Then she got mad at me and said, “Child! You should speak more respectfully of the dead.” I didn’t know that I didn’t and I don’t think it’s disrespectful for a man to wear pants. I didn’t answer her and she fished around the table and found the bowl of gumdrops and gave me two and then Grandmother came and we had tea and Grandmother talked about her shopping and was excited about tomorrow because it is a big feast day and reminded Tante Esther to come early for dinner.