"IF I SHOULD WAKE BEFORE I DIE"

I also feel that what she did was wrong, but maybe we should not be too harsh on her, because travel and communication back then was so much more difficult than it is for us in our time.

I thought it was odd, she could have done so many things other than that. A priest lying about death? No, that wouldn't happen. Maybe a fib she was ill, then she was better when they came. Having grandchildren think their grandmother died?
Why couldn't she go out and see them, she was alone, they had family and jobs. The Ingall's rarely visited anyone or had siblings visit them. Why not ask if they could pay for her to visit and help with kids?
The son who never kept in touch, who knows why. Seemed odd, unless there was a family issue we know nothing about.
I know it was a cute story but didn't make sense to me at all.

Now I've already sort of forgotten, but wasn't there an issue where a son went off to war and she didn't ever hear from him since the war? (Or am I mixing this up with the one about Mrs. Whipple's son who was in the war maybe?)

Since Amy seemed to be in good health, it is a shame she could not travel to visit her family, or maybe she didn't feel welcomed by them to do that. Maybe she could not afford it. But yes, I think involving all these other people in her deception, including a priest, as well as the Ingalls family, is wrong even if done for a good reason, i.e. because she loved her family and wanted to see them.

I also don't actually now how common it would have been back then for family to travel from all over for a funeral.....didn't they need to bury the people pretty much right away after death since they would not have had the means to preserve the bodies and decomposition would set in? Charles didn't travel back to the Big Woods for his ma's funeral.