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Show MADELYN CANNON STEWART SILVER 90 speeches, enjoyed teaching." All to no avail. There was nothing to do but bite her lip. Caldwell, who never married, entered into a career in engineering, teaching, consulting, and fighting for public and private causes in Oregon and Utah." II Madelyn, despondent and lonely for a time, seemed to see lit tle purpose in life. But she recovered, as she knew she would. She had simply been experiencing "travailings of a greater birth." On her twenty-sixth birthday, March 1, 1927, she wrote: "The sun is shining and the day is bright and happy. Everybody is sweet and good to me."!' For that celebration she received elegant birthday presents a hand-made quilt, Swedish-stitched sheets and pillow cases, hot pads, hose, dish cloths, luncheon cloth, a handsome gold-etched plate, several dainty handkerchiefs, a buffet set, and many birth day cards. Her birthday was "a victorious day." Caldwell sent her a half-dozen red roses, but no letter, not the next day, nor the day following. Sobbing disappointment ceased and there was laughter; she shouted victory. In a final entry in her diary, written just three days after her birthday, she wrote that she was "experiencing a renaissance of personality, or at least of per sonal idealism." She had begun to feel, she related, "that old exhilaration, a personal pride" that had vanished with that dreadful accident in 1924. She wrote: I am Madelyn. My life is my own, whoever may share it. There is no real reason why I should give myself complete to anyone. That used to be my idea of love. But now I ly have readjusted that idea to my liking. If some day I can find someone to hold all of my life, to hold it and treasure it and strengthen it, then how gladly I shall give. But now I am going to be sure before ever again I completely surren der. This new strength has brought with it a glorious recollec tion of my past philosophy, the philosophy that kept my life happy and balanced. With this recollection has come a real |
