In the fall of 1907, Katharine decides to drive from Newport, Rhode Island, to her home in Jackson, New Hampshire. Despite the concerns of her family and friends, that at the age of 77 she lacks the stamina for the nearly 300-mile journey, Katharine sets out alone. Over the next six days, she receives a marriage proposal, pulls an all-nighter, saves a life or two, crashes a high-society event, meets a kindred spirit, faces a former rival, makes a new friend, takes a stroll with a future movie mogul, advises a troubled newlywed, and reflects upon a life well lived; her own!
Join her as she embarks upon her remarkable road trip.
Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908) was born into affluence in England and emigrated to the U. S. at the age of eighteen. Fiercely independent and never married, Kate volunteered as a nurse on a medical ship during the Civil War, before founding a vocational school for underprivileged girls. A lifelong friend and trusted confidante of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, she was a philanthropist, a hospital administrator, and the author of The Other Side of War: 1862, as well as the noted translator of dozens of novels written by French authors, including Moliere and Balzac. She is included in History’s Women: The Unsung Heroines; History of American Women: Civil War Women; Who’s Who in America 1908-09; Notable American Women, A Biographical Dictionary: 1607-1950; and A Woman of the 19th Century: Leading American Women in All Walks of Life.
Outlook on life at the age of 77
To look at me today, you would see a grey-haired, plainly dressed and slightly stooped older woman, but in my heyday, I was quite attractive, fashionable, and lively. As a matter of fact, the well-known landscape architect Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, once introduced me as his ‘most fetching friend’. Imagine that!
Despite close friends and paramours, I have stayed the course with my original plan of remaining single. I much prefer the term ‘single’ to ‘un-married’, don’t you? It sounds more deliberate, like it was something I chose as opposed to how I just happened to end up. Would I have enjoyed the companionship of a loyal and loving husband to accompany me on a journey like the one I had just embarked upon? Well, yes, perhaps I might, but honestly? If I had ever married, the experiences I’ve had, the love I’ve known and the work that has sustained me would likely not have occurred. My life would certainly have progressed in an entirely different direction, perhaps even one that included children. That might have been fulfilling, but those are the regrets that I must not dwell on, especially not on a lovely day such as this. For today, I was relatively healthy, possessed of sound mind and spirit, and financially secure. I felt confident that I would leave this Earth in a state better than I had found it and there’s nothing better than that.
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Gail Ward Olmsted
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