A Worthy Woman
Don’t wish me happiness. I don’t expect to be happy all the time…Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor. I will need them all.
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Many years ago, I had a long train commute to work everyday. During that time, I found a new biography on Charles A. Lindbergh on my library shelves and decided it was the perfect read for my daily ride. As I plunged into it, I noted that Lindbergh’s personality was similar to my ex-father-in-law’s – impulsive, daring, brilliant but obtuse. Before too long, I had read every book on Lindbergh including his own autobiography. I don’t pretend to be a Lindbergh expert by any stretch of the imagination but I do think I knew Lindbergh pretty well. And so, it was only natural that my interest moved over to his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
I discovered quiet, acquiescent Anne was quite an unsung heroine – a worthy pilot in her own right and a prolific woman of letters and diaries, poems and prose. And she reminded me of myself: bookish, thoughtful, brooding and a bit shy.
Being a young mother, I especially liked reading about her mothering years and still recall very well the sad diary entry just after her infant son was found murdered: “You’ve already been gone a hundred years”. How many of us have felt that way when we have lost a loved one? In my amateur opinion, I don’t think she ever recovered from the loss of her beloved first-born, as much as her husband irritably and repeatedly dismissed her grief early on. I never forgave Charles Lindbergh for that. But lucky for us, her experiences, sad and otherwise, fueled a remarkable body of work, including her bestseller, Gift from the Sea.
Upon reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh, I found a writer piquantly in touch with a woman’s experience. Her quote above, tells me that with all her riches, notoriety, privileges, she was just an ordinary woman inside, feeling all the ordinary things women feel and experience – demanding husbands, loss, endless mothering, and the ever constant need to find time for oneself – to recover from life’s storms and reconnect with the soul within. She writes about it all…and I am better for having known her.
Yes, quite a worthy woman…
P.S.: Look for more worthy women I have known over the next few months and…who are your worthy women?
P.P.S.: For other worthy woman, watch The Ladies in Black…delightful film – fresh, endearing, funny and worthy women, all. And you get to see Christmas 1959 during a hot Australian summer. I loved it and you will too.
10 Comments
Elizabeth
Read the books by her daughter some time ago…I felt she was such a fine woman indeed!! Thank you for your nice blog writeup here too…enjoy your writing!
Linda Beller
Hi Donna,
Thank you for sharing Anne Morrow LIndbergh’s words. I have read a few of her books and have found a kindred spirit in her writings. That quote has touched me for this year has been so difficult and just recently I shared the quote with my niece who is facing hardships.
Linda
A Lovely Inconsequence
Thank you Linda. Yes, that quote is so wonderful. I wish healing and happiness for your niece.
Christine McCann
I’ve read a number of Anne Lindbergh’s books, and remember appreciating her lyrical style, even when she wrote about difficult and devastating events.
I haven’t seen the film the Ladies in Black yet, but when I saw it mentioned on another blog a few months back, I bought the novel and really enjoyed reading it. I recommend it highly, in fact, for its deft characterizations and insights into each of the women. Seeing that lost world recreated on screen would be an added bonus.
A Lovely Inconsequence
Christina, let me know what you think of The Ladies in Black. I loved it and I enjoyed the book so much, I bought a hard copy!
Christine McCann
I would love to read your reviews of the book and the film. I got the kindle edition, which has the film director’s introduction since he knew the Madeline St. John in college. That’s worth reading if yours didn’t have it. I would like a hard cover edition as well, and read St. John’s other works.
A Lovely Inconsequence
That is a great idea Christine. I may just review the film and book. I haven’t read the director’s intro but it’s on my Kindle edition also. The hardcover is lovely.
Karen
I have never read anything by either Lindbergh, but I do love that there is a universal language that women and mothers speak no matter what their experiences. Thank you for bringing this were the woman to my attention. I think a worthy woman that is in the same neighborhood is Amelia Earhart– and, of course, another tragedy. Beauty is we still have images and glimmers of her spirit and her courage which transcend the tragic ending of her life.
Dewena
That is so unusual, you discovering Anne through reading all of her husband’s books. Instead I collected and read every book and diary I could find by and on Anne before first going on to his autobiography. Hers I read over and over through the decades, his only once. She certainly did need all of the things in your opening quote, many times over. I loved seeing this tribute to her as I always felt she truly was one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever known (through books). You may already be familiar with their daughter Reeve’s books about their family but if not please find them as they give another dimension to the story, on through her mother’s final days. She even speaks frankly about all the secret families her father had in Europe and about finally reaching out to her half-siblings there. I know that Charles was the American hero–until WW II, that is–but in my view Anne was the real American hero. Like you, I feel I am better for having known her. Lovely post!
A Lovely Inconsequence
Hello Dewena! I haven’t read that particular book of Reeve’s but I’ve read about the secret families. You said it so very well. And I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote, “Show me an American Hero, and I will write his tragedy”. Thank you so much for your comments – they are a delight.