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The Letter / By Margaret Dart The letter, in a blue envelope, was on my desk Monday morning when I returned to the high school after I had been married over the weekend. Lawrence Jan. 23rd - 1937 4 p.m. Dear Margaret - I'd like to say a lot of things to you, Margaret, but they would sound like a lot of words from a spinster to a bride. Sounds like a laugh, doesn't it. Anyhow you are right to go ahead and establish your home now - why not. (The next two lines were in quotes.) "You'd like to come to Lacy New Mexico sometime soon - wouldn't you - will you"? Lacy New Mexico! Ye Gads! And bury myself! Not for me, but why not? Lacy is probably as good a place to live, and love, and laugh as any place on the globe. You wouldn't ever be that foolish saying 'not for me'. You are braver and saner than that. It is 4'oclock Margaret, and you are married. Happy Landing - lovingly Why have I saved this brief letter over sixty years? This kind older woman, so dearly loved by all her high school students who shared with me her regrets of turning down love and marriage. She somehow knew the uncertainties I felt about marrying and not being allowed to teach any longer - a job I loved and had worked years to achieve. The encouragement she gave me at that moment in my life I still hold dear! A note to the story - The school board decided to break it's rule of 'no female can teach who is married' - and I was asked to stay and add sex education to my health classes. I continued to teach at Lawrence Senior High for three more years. |