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Show 166 Ellis rounds the corner into 1878 and observes her thirty first birthday, then learns, on January 24th "with joy inexpressible" that "Milford is admitted to the Salt Lake Bar as an Attorney and Counselor at Law." In her nearly seven years of journal keeping during a pivotal period of her life and through a wide range of experiences with their accompanying emotions, Ellis has done an excellent job of keeping us "on the scene." Yet, in her next (and final) journal entry, dated March 14, 1878, we are not brought in. She simply states: "Graduated from Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania." She does not even bother to mention that she graduated with honors. Ellis, having successfully completed her studies, now closes her diary forever. An editor's note at the beginning of Part IV of her book states, "Upon her graduation from Medical College Dr. Shipp ended her diary. Her later life is disclosed only fragmentarily..." One of those fragments now serves as an epilogue to the seven-year record: It was a toilsome, long and anxious journey, that trip home on a second class emigrant train with my ten months old teething babe. Seven long anxious days and nights, watching and caring for my darling continually praying she would not suffer from such a journey, such lack of comforts... To my joyful surprise my husband met me at Ogden, bringing my darling baby boy with him, the little babe I left-then not quite one year old-so changed to a handsome healthy boy of nearly four. Oh, to think in the course of the coming days I was to keep him close, to hold him near, he and his precious brothers. And oh, what comfort I found in my husband's kind solicitude for me and his expressed commendation of the successful culmination of my long years of study.17 |
