Toward the end of the first year after the couple arrived in Edinburgh Mary King gave birth to a daughter. Not long after Mrs. King began to show symptoms of consumption. William King details in his autobiography how he cared for her and how he got a wet nurse for the child. But his wife was to die Feb. 25, 1846. “After the death of my wife my whole affection was placed on the Child now left the last of my family and the very image of her Mother, her playful innocence had drawn my affection strongly towards her. On coming from the Class she would stretch out her arms as soon as she saw me enter the door, to leave her nurse and come to me and quite contented when she got on my knee… My child who was growing well with her wet nurse was taken suddenly on the fifth of May with Hydrocephalus or water in the head and died on the ninth of May.”
Dr. and Mrs. Chalmers were to take William King under their wings. He often breakfasted with them, especially on Wednesday mornings when they held public breakfasts for the many guests who would call upon the president of the college and head of the church. “A great deal of information was obtained at those breakfasts; as the guests were men of learning and from all parts of the world.”
Who would you like to sit down to breakfast with?
The Emma Field Novels 
I would honestly like to have breakfast Lucretia Mott and someone very funny. Robin Williams would probably intimidate me, but he’d be pretty unpredictable.
I would love to have breakfast with George Beverly Shea. At the time I was the Chairperson for Evangelism for the Methodist Church in Central New York. It was during a Billy Graham Crusade in Syracuse, NY. I was in a hotel for a morning Evangelism meeting when down came Mr. Shea. I went up to him as he was at the desk and introduced myself as Rev. Stephen Shay. He looked at me and said, “Maybe we are related!” He invited me to have breakfast with him and his wife. Just as we headed off toward the the restaurant several folks I had been waiting for came into the lobby. I excused myself to go to the meeting, and he said, “I guess I owe you one then!” He was from Winchester, Ontario, Canada where his father was the pastor of the Winchester Wesleyan Church. Later, I became a Wesleyan Pastor and planted a Wesleyan Church near there and was given a small wooden communion set used by his Pastor father in the Winchester Wesleyan Church. Small world. George Beverly Shea died April 16, 2013. Maybe I will still have breakfast with him someday.
I would love to have breakfast with my mother who died 23 years ago. Now that I am older, I would love to be able to talk to her about what her life was like when she was in her 50’s. And perhaps now I would be able to meet her as a person, rather than only see her in her role as my mother. And I would appreciate a little more how important sharing breakfast can be.