| Show Kathleen Norris Says I About Breaking l Promises j jBell Bell Syndicate W Features i i t 1 L f i t I F I IC IQ C I Q I I Iv v Q I N. N y 1 s ti t G of ofA A c n tl I V I 1 sold the place joined my father and mother on the farm where I 1 spent my happy heppt I girlhood and awaited the coming o of f my baby She came safely and is the pet end onI I I deli 8 ht j of o ous us u nIt all on By KATHLEEN NORRIS BED EATH-BED promises are D DEATH BED almost as old-fashioned old as cutting your favorite child off with a shilling or digging digging digging dig dig- ging in the garden to find the buried family jewels But occasionally one hears of one It is about a promise she made her dying husband that Alma Watson writes me from Sheboygan Alma la is 31 she was vas married ten years ago and has been a widow for three years I Now she wants to marry a captain captain captain cap cap- tain in the marines as indeed w who mig mightn't nt I When Harold was dying says her letter he asked of me a solemn promise that I would not marry again We lost our first baby at birth three years after our marriage marriage marriage mar mar- I was expecting my second baby when my husbands husband's sudden and fatal illness occurred He was convinced that our child would be a aboy aboy aboy boy in the few hours he had tomake tomake to tomake make arrangements for me and the child he was in a frenzy of anxiety for fear that in my youth inexperience ence and loneliness I would hurry into a second marriage with some scamp who would waste and ruin our boys boy's estate which is small all but means security for us at least The child was a girl and after Harolds Harold's Harold's Harolds Harolds Harold's Har Har- olds old's death I discovered that he had been deceiving me for most of our married l life e that there was another another another an an- other woman whose claim upon him was so strong that about half of everything he left went to her She had two sons his sons My husband was 14 years older than I irritable masterful and crit- crit crit crit- ical For seven years I made him hima a good w wife e tried fried to be patient and understanding I knew all along that my marriage was anything but butan butan an ideal idea one both my mother and his had warned me not to marry him But I determined to make the best of it and nd I did Shocked knocked by Revelations When he was taken from me I did feel a sense of loss regret strangeness until til his will revealed the existence of his standing long-standing love affair with a woman in his office of of- fice flee a woman I knew who was frequently in our home Then the thought that I also had been his w wife e in those years grieving over the loss toss of my child rejoicing at the prospect of another baby revolted re re- revolted me so that I was actually prostrated with shock I would not see the woman woman again I sold the P place i joined med my father and mother on the farm where I spent my happy girlhood and awaited the coming of my baby She came safely and is the pet and delight of us all Some months ago I met a captain cap cap- tain taro of marines es just back from the Solomons Solomons He is si six c years older T J than I good and gentle and loving loving decorated for valor at Guadalcanal Guadalcanal in every way a man to love and respect We love each other dearly my parents would be most ha happy to have him for a son Some Some five five years ago he bought the farm next t to j fc us and will 1 11 farm f v vw-t vw it 4 again after th the war if he comes safely through In every ev ev- cry ery way the prospect seems o one of heaven heavenly happiness to me but I sill am bound by that old promise b by m my y husband in in inthe the last exacted hour of co consciousness Or am I bound it Will you tell by me what of f this problem you think I Alma Ill I'll tell you what I T think K- K Ki i and what authorities fa far r wiser in moral la law w than I think am informed about it I that such a promise is not binding g it was unfairly extracted extract extract- ed from yoU under serious emotional DEATH BED VOWS When a dying person exacts binding promises on his hi deathbed deathbed death bed he is manifesting a jealous desire to go on living after death a childish impulse to continue to influence the world according to Kathleen Norris Promises Promise made at a death bed are not the result o of f clear thinking but are usually obtained under tinder intense emotional pressure and should uld be considered in the same category category cate gory with white lies sometimes sometime employed to encourage the very lay ill pressure No human being has t e right to control the actions of s a cather c- c J other ather after death it would be b t a reasonable for you to demand of y i dying husband that he never look t ta a woman-angel woman until you arrived bjoin tj U join him in heaven 1 IF he real I meant only to protect you and ha tia toul ul to unborn son from adventurers fral frala roo a foolish second marriage atey of after ter his death that danger a is passed anyway His son is a daugh daug daughter day dayter ter and his widow has remained I t widow for three long years and nol DOT contemplates marriage with an e eIt eni o suitable person If he hemea mea which is more likely to continue b dominate and handicap you that an unworthy motive on his part d ad wherever his spirit is it will be fact trec if you forget and forgive his uj tice At 31 you are too young b abandon all thought of married h especially after long yea when you sacrificed your own to his living only to please sI satisfy him hun He Exercised Childish Impulse The jealous desire to go on after death to continue to in inthis this world and a few at least of oU fi iU inhabitants is a childish and 0 developed impulse One sees it ts' ts ej in wills in freakish 1 If dispositions of estates ates in surer letters locked up in strong boxes as I believe the liberated spin SF spi reaches new wide horizons where our sensual earthly appetites at l 1 ls appear to us to be as pitiably arow na a- a row as they really are how bi bit must a soul regret the blind Jl whims and he len lef t tt hind him 0 n 1 l. l n 1 et p Jue ne Ui UL of the IU most 1 horrifying pies of that sort ort some years at- at I was the will of a man who ltd Ieh lej large fortune to the woman l ri would bear the most children lad in W I u di Y years ears Several women actually P l Zt hot Of this disgraceful race race SO son j Q the poor little unwanted babies J 1 moth mott a some were of unmarried already d many came to families relief s several everal to a vermin vermin- eS home lome that had already given to relief board a great deal of tram ti tiIt trOll It was no place for a baby I If f the proper author authorities t Ie S b thrown w wu out this pernicious subversive to public morals would have been one lc long r rd d scandal less in m the world I Hid living man made such a Pr Propos Propos' P j there would have been no bes 3 in shutting him up But because man was dead and red n Va wax ax i ired the U red tape dangled from document it was regarded cond Jj M as cr cred ed and the infamous con COD R where of it were published minded irresponsible women read them Infidelities Null Nullify y Were the promise of a oW fir ri nature and Almas Alma's husband husban she could go to him and ex B 1 she was withdrawing it it it- c complete changes in a all ail the t co IC G h. h Ater bons Certainly she is DA no ate ee H t an k Ia obligated to him dea dead L tom still f here heres ere VI would be if he were s hi the h lee ee bol own OW ha I she must consider her |
