Suzita “Sue” Espy, 1922

I’ve been thinking a lot about my aunt, Suzita Espy Pearson.  I never knew her.  She died of pneumonia in 1932, four years before I was born.  She left a husband (who she had nursed through pneumonia during the weeks previous to her own death) and two young sons, Wallace, 8, and Charles, 4  — 12 and 8 years, respectively, older than I.

Throughout her life, Sue had been susceptible to pneumonia.  In retrospect, it seems a foregone conclusion that she would die of it.   In the following exchange between of letters between Mama at home in Oysterville and  Medora, in boarding school in Portland, Sue is eleven, Medora is 16 and Mama, mother of seven, is 39. 

Medora, 1915

Thursday, March 11, 1915
Dear,
          Sue is quite comfortable now.  She spent a bad night and we were much depressed this morning, but a half hour ago she raised a great clot of blood and has been breathing easier and is clear headed since.
          Dr. says we can look for no change before Sunday.
                                                   In haste,       Mama

Helen Richardson Espy, 1918

Friday afternoon, March 12, 1915
Dearest sweetest little mother,
          Your short note arrived this morning and if it hadn’t been for my good judgement I would have started for home tonight…So I certainly hope that you don’t need me.  I will come at once on receipt of any kind of message.
          I am so sorry for poor little Sue.  I think she is the best patient in the family which makes it easier for you.
          Please take good care of yourself my dearest mother, because you are so precious to me…
                                                   Lots and lots of love, Medora

Little did any of them know that it would be Medora who would live less than a year more.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 18, 1916.  I think of them all during these difficult days we all face now, more than a century later, and I admire their courage, their spirit, and their ever abiding love.