August 25 Tuesday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to Livy:
Livy darling, your cablegram came yesterday [not extant] asking after my health. I was unspeakably glad to get it, for it swept away a fast-gnawing burden of apprehension concerning your own state; I judged that its inner meaning was a message to me to say “Do not be uneasy about me.”
August 22 Saturday – The S.S. Paris arrived in New York. Clara Clemens recalled the events:
August 18 Tuesday – At 7:07 p.m. in Hartford, Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens, age 24, died of spinal meningitis in the Farmington Ave. house [MTA 37; Sept. 6 to Hutton]. Katy Leary, longtime servant and helper to the family, was with her, as was Charles Langdon and Sue Crane. Joe Twichell had come from the Adirondacks to comfort Susy, but it’s not clear if he was with her at the end (see Sept.
August 15 Saturday – Upon arriving at Southampton, the Clemenses found another cable waiting from the family gathered in New York. Susy’s recovery (from an unspecified disease) would be “long but certain.” This convinced Sam to stay in England. Livy and Clara boarded the S.S. Paris bound for New York. On the same day, Dr. Porter in Hartford diagnosed Susy with spinal meningitis, an often lethal malady before the days of antibiotics.
August 30 Sunday – In Guildford, England Sam finished his Aug. 29 letter to Livy.
Sunday, mid-afternoon, 30th. Not a line yet, not a single line. It seems as if I cannot bear it.
August 26 Wednesday – In Guildford, England Sam began a letter to Livy that he finished Aug. 28.
August 23 Sunday – Thomas Kinnicut Beecher, minister of the Park Church in Elmira, conducted the funeral of Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens in the Langdon home. Susy was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. Livy, Jean, and Clara Clemens were all at the graveside, along with Sue Crane and members of the Langdon clan.
August 19 Wednesday – In Guildford, England, Sam wrote two notes to Andrew Chatto, the first before receiving news of Susy’s death, the second afterward. First,
August 16 Sunday – Neider writes of Susy’s torment:
Next morning, a Sunday, she walked about a bit in pain and delirium, then felt very weak and returned to bed, but before doing so, rummaging in a closet, she came across a gown she had once seen her mother wear. She thought the gown was her dead mother, and, kissing it, began to cry [Papa 43].
August 14 Friday – In the morning word reached the Clemenses in Guildford that Susy Clemens was quite ill. Sam cablegrammed Charles Langdon throughout the day for clarification but none came.