I could not rid myself of a feeling that my mother was in her room, and that she might at any moment cough, or stir, or call to me. … Realizing with appalling force that so far as my philosophy went our separation was eternal, I nevertheless hoped that her spirit was with us at that moment, I did not know it—I desired it.

Hamlin Garland Munseys, A Daughter of the Middle Bo…, loc. 1059