June 6 Monday – At 2:30 a.m. at the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
2.30 a.m. I have been down stairs to worship that dear face, & for the first time in all these long years it gave no heed. How beautiful it was; & young, & smooth, & rounded, & how sweetly reposeful! I can carry that picture clear & fadeless in my heart until my own happy time shall come.
Susy, we never dreamed that the sun of our house was setting! Five hours & a quarter ago—at 9.15 p.m.—she was bright & happy; and a single minute later she passed from life. All in an instant. Without a struggle, without a catch of the breath—peacefully, unconsciously; just as a tired child falls asleep. It was heart-failure. How grateful I am that she was mercifully spared the awful fate she has been dreading—death by strangulation.
I sat by her from 7.30 to 8; I ventured to stay so long (a forbidden privilege) because she was so animated was feeling so well. When I went away I was so hopeful & happy that it amounted to an exaltation. And so I was moved to do a thing which I have seldom done since Susy died: I went up stairs to the piano & broke out into the old Jubilee songs that Susy liked to hear me sing. Jean came straightway & listened—she never did it before. I sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” & the others. And Livy, so far away, heard me, & said to the nurse, “He is singing a good-night carol for me”—& almost in that moment she passed away.
I went down to say good-night, & entered the room suspecting nothing. Her spirit had just taken flight. Livy was sitting up in bed—as always—& Katy was supporting her on one side & the nurse on the other, the children standing at the foot, looking dazed. I went & bent over & looked in her face, & was surprised that she did not greet me. I did not know she was dead. I did not suspect it until Clara said, “Katy is it true? Katy, is it true?” Then Katy burst out in sobbings, & I knew!
O, Lord God! [MTP].
Sam sent cables to Charles J. Langdon, H.H. Rogers, Richard Watson Gilder, William Dean Howells, and Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin: “She passed peacefully away last night” [MTP]. Note: some of these are deduced from incoming letters; other cables were likely sent, but are not extant.
At 3 a.m. Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
You have received my cablegram, dear Mr. Rogers, & you know that a desolation has come upon this household which nothing can repair. Mrs. Clemens died at a little past 9 last night—no one suspecting that the end was near. It was heart-failure, & instantaneous. She had been talking cheerfully & happily a moment before.
Our life is wrecked; we have no plans for the future; she always made the plans, none of us was competent. We shall carry her home & bury her with her dead, at Elmira. Beyond that, we have no plans. The children must decide. I have no head, I am stunned; I was not expecting this. In these last days I was beginning to hope, & half-believe, she would get well. It is a thunder-stroke.
With my love—& hers—to you all, … [MTHHR 569 ].
Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells.
Last night at 9.20 I entered Mrs. Clemens’s room to say good-night—& she was dead! Tho’ no one knew it. She had been cheerfully talking a moment before. She was sitting up in bed—she had not lain down for months—& Katie & the nurse were supporting her. They supposed she had fainted, & they were holding the oxygen pipe to her mouth, expecting to revive her. I bent over her & looked in her face, & I think I spoke—I was surprised & troubled that she did not notice me. Then we understood, & our hearts broke. How poor we are to-day!
We are crushed. The disaster came at a little past 9 nine last night—& with a merciful swiftness; she had been cheerfully talking, a moment before. At 8 she had been speaking to me about a possible flight to a summer-villa which we had taken in the hills 20 miles from here.
Her miseries had lasted 22 months; I am so grateful that her sweet spirit is at rest.
The world is black to-day, & I think it will never lighten again.
I send my love—& hers—to both of you [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “At 12.20 p.m. I looked for the last time upon that dear face—& I was full of remorse for things done & said in these 34 years of married life that hurt Livy’s heart. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Jean did not sleep. To-day she had an attack—the first in 13 months” [NB 47 TS 12].
Daniel Willard Fiske wrote a letter of condolence to Sam [MTP].
Francis Bowler Keene wrote a letter of condolence to Sam [MTP].
Gertrude Tennant wrote a letter of condolence to Sam [MTP].
William Wilson wrote a letter of condolence to Sam [MTP].
Samuel E. Moffett wrote a letter of condolence to Sam. “With all the preparation of these years of flickering life we could hardly believe that Aunt Livy’s sufferings were over. It seemed as strange and incredible…. We know that such a sorrow as yours does not come to many…”[MTP].
At the Villa di Quarto at 5 p.m., Livy’s “body was embalmed by the attending physician,” Dr. G. W. Kirch; the “vice counsul came out to the villa & put the requisite seals upon the casket.” The body was then put in a vault until it could be shipped to Genoa and placed aboard on June 25 [June 8 to Twichell; July 23 to Mason]. The Clemens party would then travel south to Rome, then to Naples, meet the ship there and sail for N.Y.
But how thankful I am that her persecutions are ended. I would not call her back if I could.
To-day, treasured in her worn old Testament, I found a dear & gentle letter from you, dated Far Rockaway, Sept. 13, 1896, about our poor Susy’s death. I am tired & old; I wish I were with Livy.
I send my love—& hers—to you all [MTHL 2: 785]. Note: see Howells’ letter in Vol. II.
Sam also wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.