A Woman of Independent Means Read Online Free PDF Page B

love,
Bess
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    AUGUST 5 1916
DALLAS
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    ROBERT STEED
JEFFERSON HOTEL
ST LOUIS MISSOURI
ELEANOR STRUCK BY AUTO IN COMA AT BAYLOR
COME HOME AT ONCE
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    BESS
    August 12, 1916
Dallas
    Mr. Arthur Fineman
1300 N. Beckley
Oak Cliff, Texas
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    Dear Mr. Fineman,
    Thank you for your letter of last week. I was not able to answer it until today when my child finally emerged from her coma. The multiple fractures she suffered left her immobile from head to toe. But this morning when she opened her eyes and smiled at me for the first time in a week, I felt as if she had leapt out of bed.
    Thank you for your offers of assistance but we have the means of dealing with this emergency. Let me assure you again in writing that my husband and I have no intention of pressing any legal charges against you. My child stepped directly into the path of your car, and no driver could have humanly avoided the accident that followed.
    I hold myself responsible. I had her hand in mine when she suddenly pulled free and ran to join her older brothers who had crossed the street ahead of us with their nurse. I ran after her and reached for her just as she stepped into the street—but too late. I have relived this scene continuously since it happened, as I am sure you have too. I cannot talk about it with anyone in my family; you are the only one who can share my guilt. Even my beloved husband appears to me now in the guise of grief-stricken father, and his usually comforting presence serves only as an unspoken reproach. I have never felt more alone in my life.
    Life is so much more dangerous now than it was when I was growing up. I lived in a small town without sidewalks, and I remember skipping in the street alongside horses and carriages, with no thought that anything on wheels could ever hurt me or anything I loved. But that was before the automobile.
    I must close now. Eleanor is waking up again.
    Yours truly,
Bess Steed

    August 15, 1916
The Clouds
    Darling Eleanor,
    You are the first mortal to receive a letter from the kingdom of the clouds, but all of us have been watching you in your bed in the hospital and we wanted to tell you how brave and strong we think you are.
    The doll that brought this letter is the kind our children play with here in the clouds. Her eyes are as blue as the sky, her hair shines like the sun, and her dress is the color of sunset.
    We know you have to lie very still all day, and all you can see from your window is the sky. But the sky is our world and more interesting than anyone on earth can imagine. Look closely and you will see us hiding among the stars and sleeping on the clouds. And we will look down at the earth and tell you all the funny things the other mortals are doing.
    Love and kisses,
The Cloud Fairy

    November 10, 1916
Dallas
    Mrs. Martin Banks
Secretary
The Shakespeare Club
Dallas, Texas
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    Dear Exa,
    It is with great regret that I am requesting an indefinite leave of absence, but since Eleanor’s accident my life has been confined to my home and her hospital room. And will be for as far into the future as I dare look.
    She is so brave it breaks my heart. Fortunately she is too young to have any real concept of time. Her calendar goes from Christmas to Easter to her birthday. The months between mean nothing to her, so when the doctor tells her she will be home by Easter and able to walk again by her birthday, that forecast does not fill her with the despair it does me.
    Sitting here in the hospital room, I have reread all my favorite passages from Shakespeare but have found little to console me. Even Lear in his grief did not begin to express the emotions that have besieged me since the accident. I do not believe Shakespeare ever had the experience of seeing a child of his suffer as I have.
    Please convey my appreciation to all those who approved my name for membership and my regret at having to relinquish temporarily one of the highest honors of my life, but my family has always held