Content warning: Suicide
Ruth stands alone on a rocky shore, surrounded by a hazy sea. In the distance, a shape appears through the mist. A boat approaches, and at the bow stands a woman so beautiful she must be an angel. Right hand outstretched, left hand clutching a basin of water, the angel beckons softly, “Drink.”
This is the dream Ruth Anne Dodge recounted to her three daughters shortly before her death on Sept. 5, 1916. For three nights she had this dream, and twice she refused the angel’s invitation. On the third night, she obliged, telling her children that the angel had offered her the water of life and by drinking it she had “transformed into a new and glorious spiritual being.” This dream became the inspiration for the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial…