OCR Text |
Show 182 marginally. Louisa, as the first wife, was always able to remain at home and freely walk the streets. Celia, as second wife, had to flee at various times to Northern Utah, to Idaho, and to Colorado. Unsettling as this was, it was not without its benefits. Madsen points up a few of them: Celia's first genuine home with her husband was in Colorado. There she found herself among fine and genteel women, such as Georgia Snow Thatcher (daughter of Erastus Snow), who became an "aunt" to Celia, giving counsel and quiet reassurance; and Emily Wells Grant, the charming and intellectual wife of Heber J. Grant, a daughter of Daniel H. Wells. These were among the "Edmunds widows," sharing a strong interdependence in the rustic little town. Roberts spent some of the "longest" periods Celia and her children ever had with him in this home-two weeks out of each four months. He built her a huge fireplace ("I practiced masonry in the blacksmith shop, and now I shall build a masterpiece for you," he said). For the rest of her life Celia savored the memory of this fireplace and the stormy Colorado winters during which its high flames comforted her. Around this home Celia planted marigolds as well as vegetables, and the morning glories outside the door were a welcome mat to B. H. In that small home at Manassa came her third child, Hazel. From Manassa, Celia wrote at Thanksgiving time that little Harold was beginning to speak and that were he not "full of life" and of "little innocent prattle" she would more often feel homesick and blue. "I fight against these feelings all I can but I expect Henry thinks I am getting to be an old grumbler. I was in hopes he would be out to our conference but was disappointed. It seems an age since I saw him." [Shades of Ellis!]10 Louisa, too, had her problems. Her husband once said, "It has been the dream of Lou's life to have a quiet home and her husband with her always...and all the time I am away." [also] "I love her more than she thinks I do." Through Ellis's record of her own trials in the many separations |