Letter to Grandma Cannon from
her children on her 60th birthday (July 2, 1933)
“For my heart was hot and
restless, and my life was full of care, and the burden laid upon me seemed
greater than I could bear.
“But now it has fallen from
me, it is buried in the sea; and only the sorrow of others throws its shadow
over me”
Grandma Cannon –dear mother
of us all. These verses from your
favorite, Longfellow, make us think of you.
You have had lots of troubles
right from the time your beautiful wax doll had its head melted behind the
stove, when you were a lovely little girl who had to keep quiet for a sick
mother. Then you were an ambitious young
student, giving up your great desire for further accomplishment in school, to
marry and give so many of us a chance at life in this world.
Then you did have a
lot of troubles! “Your heart was hot and
restless” and “life was full of care”
“And the burden laid upon you
seemed greater than you could bear.”
But even with your frail,
slender body, you have been greater than all your troubles. You have overcome
or out lived them. You have made the
fight and still walk “with the soul erect.”
And now you can say: “but now
they have fallen from me, they are buried in the sea;
And only the sorrow of others
throws it shadows over me.”
You don’t seem to care an more
for troubles of your own. You don’t care
about eating mud, like we do; you don’t care about fine clothes; and we
sometimes think that the glorious stars (about which you can tell us so much) suit
you better than anything else for shelter. It is only our troubles and the
anxiety we cause you, that “casts a shadow over you” now.
And we want to tell you for
your sixtieth birthday that we do care lots for you, even though we
don’t always show it. We love to
come and see you. We always know where
to come for help when we are up against it in any way. We know where to come for a good book or an
idea for more on in humans are talks in Sunday School.
We will never forget all you
have done for us. Those of us who are
getting kind of old are just learning how much you have done for
us, and what it means to make a home
like yours.
Even the grandchildren have
noticed the fact that Grandma is always giving us things and doing things for
us, and never wants to take anything herself.
My we sometime thank you,
Grandma by not “casting any shadows over you,” and through our own personal
development and success thank you.
On the outside of the hand-written document, Bea has
written: scraps of writing glean out before destroying. B. 1947 March
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