Daughter of Bishop Edward Partridge, Eliza Maria married the Prophet Joseph who taught her the Gospel. She was devastated at his death and mourned especially that she had had no child for him.

She later married Apostle Amasa M. Lyman before the exodus from Nauvoo. When she found upon that terrible journey that she was to be a mother, such joy and happiness filled her heart that the agony of the blistering sun or the mud and hunger, all were easy to bear with the cherished knowledge of her coming little one.

When at last the time arrived, her little Don Carlos was born in the wagon, their only home. She pressed his eagerly to her hungry heart and even in her agony, sang him soft lullabies. For six delightful months she lavished him with her love and care even in her own awful illness of "child bed fever" when she nearly lost her life. But her love was powerless to save him for there was no way to nourish him. She tells of it in her journal and of the tiny grave they made not far from the bank of the river. She recounts her emptiness, her loneliness and longing as they endure one hardship after another of hunger, pain and cold.

It is for her dear memory I have written the little song, "Lullaby Tears." In my heart, she was truly an "Elect Lady."

Lullaby Tears

Sleep my babe, the Father's will
Calls you away from me.
My wee Don Carlos, pale and still
Angels will care for thee.