May 1789, she wrote in her diary that because there were no children, grandchildren, or household for her to preoccupy her time with, her “spirit [would] hold communion with God at all times”. Coming from the Calvinist idea of predestination, Dickinson spent much of her time in religious contemplation in order to prepare herself for God. Though she was devoted to this life, she did express anger and confusion concerning why God was making her go through certain trials and struggles in her life. When her niece died at the age of one, she told herself that God took her niece away so that she would avoid distractions from her faith. This belief became a factor in her reasoning for never having children. Later life and death On September 10, 1788, Dickinson chose to leave Hatfield for Bennington, Vermont where her sister, Martha, lived with her own family. In the course of this move, Martha’s husband became sick, forcing Dickinson to return to Hatfield. In August 1795, Dickinson permanently moved to live with her sister Miriam Billings. In her later years, she aimed to come to peace with her life alone. After the 1808 death of Silas Billings, Dickinson and her sister Miriam moved into Miriam's son Roswell’s home. In April of 1810, Dickinson wrote her will and gaver her land in Williamsburg, Massachusetts to her nephews. In March 1815, she hurt her hip and nine months later, on December 31, 1815, Rebecca Dickinson died at the age of 77 from influenza. She was buried alongside her parents in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Legacy Although none of the garments she constructed are known to survive, a set of crewelwork bed furnishings decorated with vines and flowers are preserved in the collections of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library in Deerfield, Massachusetts, which also holds the manuscript diary. A sketch based on Dickinson's headcloth, made by Margaret C. Whiting in 1905, is also among the PVMA collections. A piano scarf, embroidered by Mary Wait Allis Hurlburt in 1916, and based on an element of Dickinson's crewelwork, survives in the collections of the Hatfield Historical Society, as does a firescreen believed to have been made by Dickinson. References 1738 births 1815 deaths People from Hatfield, Massachusetts Calvinist and Reformed Christians American diarists 18th-century American non-fiction writers 18th-century American women writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century American women writers 18th-century diarists 19th-century diarists American tailors