August 18 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Susy died 4 years ago. / All remained at home at Dollis Hill & saw no company” [NB 43 TS 24].
At 7:30 a.m. at Dollis Hill House in London, Sam replied to Joe Twichell (incoming not extant).
No, it was not gastritis alone that the Chief Justice died of—that was a journalistic error: he had a cancer.
I get this from a physician.
It is 7.30 a.m. I have been waking very early, lately. If it occurs once more, it will be Habit; then I will submit and adopt it.
This is our Day of Mourning. It is four years since Susy died; it is five years & a month that I saw her alive for the last time—throwing kisses at us from the railway platform when we started West around the world. Sometimes it is a century, sometimes it was yesterday [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister, declining an invitation for this day but encouraging him to visit the next day, Aug. 19. Sam explained: “This is our Day of Mourning for our lost daughter, who died this day four years ago” [MTP].