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#1579: Willa Cather to Zoë Akins, April 28 [1942]

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ My Dear Zoë1;

I was giving a little dinner for a man from Pittsburgh4 whom I used to know and like many years ago. Your flowers arrived by special delivery——with the coffee! There were a good many flowers in the room5, but when I opened yours they made the others look pale and prim. Hothouse roses can't stand up against roses grown in the open air. Yours put a fine touch 2 on a reunion of old friends. They were so rich and opulent and full of sun and nature. Oh, the poor hot roses looked as if they had never had a good time time in their lives—they withdrew into shadow.

This was the first little party I had in a long time, and you surely put a magical touch to it. I have had an exhausting life since March 16th. I came home from a dinner that night to find a telegram telling me that my brother6 who lives in Colusa7 was frightfully ill again—pneumonia, with a damaged heart.

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He was absolutely unconscious for thirteen days, fed by blood transfusions and nearly all the time in the oxygen tent. On Good Friday I got word that he was definitely improving—and then I went into a hospital myself, and stayed there for two weeks. I was just worn out by anxiety and fright. You see this brother is really all the family I have left. There are two others8, good fellows enough, but they don't count in my life like this one.

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The sequel to all this woe is that he is getting well! He is at home, and has written me two long letters apologizing for giving me such a fright.

March and April of this year were the two worst months I ever lived through. So you can see how a box of roses and (camellias!) dropping out of the sky so would seem quite wonderful. Thank you dear Zoë, and I hope you are enjoying your lovely house9 and garden.

Affectionately Willa
Mrs. Hugo Rumbold1 Brigden Road Pasadena3 California NEW YORK. N.Y.2 APR 29 1942 1 PM