Jervis McEntee Diaries

Saturday December 25, 1880

Jervis McEntee Diary Entry, December 25, 1880, from the Jervis McEntee papers, 1850-1905, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Saturday, Dec 25, 1880 Christmas. No one at home except our own family. I went over to the cemetery after breakfast. It had snowed a little in the night and as I stood beside the snowy mound above my dear Gertrude I felt anew a sense of my loss in her and I could not keep back the tears. The stone had been protected as I ordered it. I could not bear to stay there for my memories of her who slept below were too overwhelming and I went for a walk with Park across the fields. The quiet wintry landscape brought a sense of repose and rest to me but I was glad to be at home again and to be with my people. We had a quiet Christmas and but few presents. I had some thing for the servants and my mother and Sara and [?] Marys children (Girards) who had a little tree. Oscar Sawyer came up by the morning train. It was a charming winter day and I felt how blessed a thing it was for me to be able to go to so pleasant a home and to be able to take them some encouraging news. In the evening we all went down to John McEntees where were all his and Freds families. Julia Dillon went up with me on Friday and staid at our house until Saturday. Oscar is not well.

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