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Show MADELYN CANNON STEWART SILVER 122 of our union. Can I cooperate effectively? Can I remain nec essary to him? Can I be the secret of his success? How to do it! ... I find myself suddenly in a rut between my struggle to be an efficient housewife and my desire to help the family sit uation [her parents were having physical and emotional prob lems.] I do nothing; I am only tired and inert. And now I am utterly rebellious at the lot of woman. I see only a cycle of efforts to overcome and resist bodily inertia and discomfort!" Because of Madelyn'S parents' health problems, she and Harold moved into her parents' home, not an apartment. Harold arranged to give up the Ogden apartment on Saturday, January 24, 1931. Madelyn was unhappy about leaving Ogden, her friends, the Club, and all. But the Club urged them to con tinue with them, which they agreed to do. The Club appealed to Madelyn and Harold because its programs featured discus such "intellectual" topics as Renaissance music, Chaucer, Balzac, and Michelangelo. In February, Madelyn continued to have headaches and tired sions on feelings; she felt inefficient and futile and helpless. Harold reas sured her, told her he was proud of her. Dr. Clarence Snow (looking after Madelyn's father) said the world is carried on by people with headaches and stomach aches and all sorts of other aches. "So," wrote Madelyn, "I feel inspired to disregard my present discomfort." Harold continued to work on the drawing of his sugarbeet and went to Denver, confident and full of hope. piler Barnard Stewart, Madelyn's Papa, as she always called him, died on March 6, 1931. Madelyn was with him, in his house, and wrote: "As I knelt there I projected my soul into his. I went with him over the border and we found peace." She then wrote Barnard's obituary, which was published the following day. As the Silvers established their own home, Madelyn's mother often stayed with them. In her diary, in letters to her mother, the many references to Papa suggest how close Madelyn was to her father. On a day in for two straight weeks, June 1941, when it had rained every day she wrote: |
