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Show le IS Marriage, Motherhood, and Migraines 111 glad she would have the baby in the spring. Should she have the baby in Salt Lake or Ogden? Her mother talked to their Salt Lake doctor, and he recommended Dr. William Nebeker, a Salt Lake City obstetrician. "He uses a wonderful new anesthesia that permits one to sleep the last three hours of the labor." Madelyn is grateful for the tender care of Harold, whose love is undiminished, but "oh, 1 have within me a terrible rebellion against illness. 1 feel that 1 cannot go through life suffering as my poor Mother has done. 1 am only now beginning to sense what she has endured all these years. 1 must find a way to be healthy, especially when 1 am carrying my child." She goes ahead to say that she wants to be competent, vigorous, and charming, "and to keep over it all the glow of a fresh, func tioning mind." She closes the long entry: "May the joy of my approaching motherhood dominate every day of my existence; may it give me physical strength, peace of mind, sweetness, and dignity of attitude; may 1 bear my child while singing!"!' She spent a long Christmas in Salt Lake City with her moth er, and as she and Harold sat in front of the lighted tree on Christmas Eve, she reflected: "We are both so happy. Life has become filled with joy and hopes and ambitions. This year we have had the glorious security of ten months of thoroughly con genial married happiness, with still the wonder and marvel of May (when the baby would be born) ahead of US."12 As her pregnancy became advanced, Harold often attended her Mutual class, and substituted for her in teaching when she preferred to stay home in bed. "None of the ecstacy nor the illu sion is gone," she wrote on January 4. Two days later, "Went for a mile walk, but was so wearied that 1 had to lie down dur ing supper. Harold petted me back to contentment and greater ease. The next day, "Mutual in the evening, with Harold visit ing my class." At a Mutual class on January 14, the teacher talked about Dante and Milton. Madelyn wrote: "I enjoyed Mrs. Jensen's class on Milton, although she rather unwisely expressed a preference for Dante over Milton. There is a grandeur, a singleness of purpose, in Milton which is lacking in Carey's translation of Dante." They went to the theater, to par ties and celebrations, and to dinner dances. Madelyn and |
