Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Tuesday 21st [sic]. Quite a brilliant Evening here. Mrs Howe came unexpectedly and Mrs Martin opened the evening with an excellent touching paper on Emanuel Deutsch. Miss Whitney continued with a short dissertation on French Art, a model of excellence in style, directed to Couture as the central...

Wednesday Evening came Mr. Graham Bell with his telephone—about 20 persons again.

Thursday. Chardon St. and twice to see mother who is very very low. Kate Gannett came in and mother said to her “I loved your father dearly.” After she went out mother said to me “Always pay Kate every attention in your power for my sake.”

Friday night. I am so glad not to have gone to Miss Gaetano’s concert which we were tempted to do. Sarah came down to say mother is delirious. She and the nurse are very tired and they need assistance. They particularly wanted J. so he has gone, though he is very lame tonight.

Sunday March 25. An Easterly rain, like Spring. Mother very low, and unconscious for the most part. Took tea at Louisa’s though she was with Sarah. Went there at nine o’clock but returned home and found Mrs Dresel. She went for her husband and he played to us twice deliciously—indeed...

Tuesday March 27. Mother died this morning at 6 A.M. At this writing (early in the afternoon) it already seems an eternity—so surely is time marked by feeling & experience and not by deeds done or moments counted.

April 11th Passed the day at Chardon St. How strangely certain experiences bring you nearer or distance you utterly from former relations. I feel near to dear Kate Gannett since mother’s death, as I never did before. 

Sunday May 13. The buds are bursting and today was really warm. The thermometer may have been anywhere short of ninety degrees.

Sunday May 20. Last night my good cook Ann who did not prove herself to be as good a woman as cook went away—the one who was to come did not!!

May 29. Came Robert Collyer.

May 30. William Hunt came to lunch. He said many brilliant things and sometimes with touches of genius. Speaking of the nervous excitement induced by a telegram he said, “I think is this one dead or that, is it mother, is it Jenny, no and I know it can’t be Jenny she’ll never die!!” This...

June 1st Dear J. read at the Old South with Emerson, Holmes, J.F. Clarke, & E.H. Hale. He said O.W.H. was very amusing. He seemed to consider that the whole occasion revolved upon him, that he was the magnet. When the time came for him to read his poem he put it into J.’s hands saying, “now...

June 2d Went to Manchester. Very beautiful. Sarah came for a visit in town. We shall stay until she is ready to go.

June 18. Sarah came and went—meanwhile the delicious rains descended and filled our cistern but the cistern proved teacherous and silently when no one suspected it, let the water all out again, so just as we were ready to go we found we must wait for more rain.

June 25. A warm day. Sat by my pleasant bed-room window and finished “Persephone” except two or three songs which are not yet to my mind and must wait for a clearer mood. In the afternoon went with Dear “J.” to Readville to pass the afternoon and evening with Mr. & Mrs. Pratt & Mrs Bell....

June 26. The sky has changed. Clouds and easterly winds prevail. We have given up going to the Shoals for the day. The President, Mr. Hayes, entered Boston. We were invited by Mrs Alger to stand on Mrs John Lodge’s balcony where we were proud to stand and greet the fine procession. Gov. Rice...

June 30. Came to the Isles of Shoals. The afternoon was overcast, the sea rather rough and we could seem to understand the horrors of the winter at this place.

Sunday July 1st. The morning dark and threatening. Thunder. In the evening and during the night a mighty storm. Mother’s heart used always to be with the “poor sailors”.

Monday morning bright and beautiful—at dawn and a little later the sea was smooth—now the surface is covered with white caps and clouds are rising. It is cheerful in Celia’s parlor—gay bits of chince [sic, for chintz] are everywhere and flowers and pictures and music. Dr. and Mrs Adams...

July 3th [sic] We came to Manchester. Imogen and Nelly were already here awaiting us. “J.” was ill and it was cheerful to see them here.

July 4th Dear J. ill all day. Dr. Curtis came from Beverly. The weather is cool and clouded, not much like the perfect sea-side season of last year. Brilliant Fireworks on the opposite hill.

July 5. J. still in bed and suffering. Robert Darrah called.

July 6. Better; up and about. Writing. Weather still soft and clouded.

July 16. Mr. J.F. Clarke here, Laura W. Johnson, Mrs Diaz—also Imogen & Nelly as usual—a delightful family. We are all very happy together.

July 19. Mrs Goddard and the Kings called—soft cloudy warm weather.