Chapter 93
From the Journal of Honey Sutton Jan. 6, 1939
Hub has been gone four days, but I still miss him terribly. Let's be honest. I'm going to miss him until he's back home again and in my arms for a big hug. Why did that Simon Hartley have to tell Hub about his father in Hamilton who used to be in the Royal Canadian Navy? Why did he have to persuade his father to put in a word with his friends in the Hamilton Division of the RCNVR so that they would accept Hub's application to join?
… Harry Schmitz has started work at the Bas Lake Mine. I saw him on the street yesterday and asked him how he was doing. He answered, "Pretty well. It's good to have a steady job, especially one where no one is dropping bombs on you or trying to shoot you."
Lawrence Bridgeman objects to hiring a known Communist, especially after the last one stirred up plenty of trouble, including a strike, before leaving with his tail between his legs. Of course, he fails to mention that it was his decision to hire replacements for the strikers behind Mother Bailey's back and bring in the O.P.P. [Ontario Provincial Police-Ed.] to escort them that almost caused a bloodbath in the streets of New Bedford. Thank heaven Hub came up with the idea of paying the strikers in stock so that they could have a reasonable raise without driving the Silverdome Mining Company into the red, so to speak.
Mrs. Murphy told me after the Ladies' Sodality meeting on Tuesday that Bridgeman tried to persuade her husband as acting president of the Silverdome Mining Company during Mother Bailey's absence to refuse to hire Harry. He even appealed to him as a fellow Catholic, although he isn't a fellow Franco supporter. He got nowhere. George Murphy is loyal to the Bailey family. Besides, he believes that a man who stood by Grace's husband through two years of war and whose father has an excellent work record at the Bas Lake Mine at least deserves a fair chance to make good.
Hubert Bailey to Honey Sutton Jan. 6, 1939
Sorry I haven't written to you earlier. Things have moved fast since I arrived. The Hartleys have done everything to make me welcome. You would like Simon's parents, George and Cathy Hartley. Mr. Hartley is friendly and talkative. He has lots of stories about his time in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Great War. Mrs. Hartley is quieter, but just as warm. Her cooking is nearly as good as yours or Aunt Grace's.
Simon's brothers, Len and Bill, and his sister, Elaine, are just as gabby as their dad. I wish Elaine weren't so cool to me. … They are all good Catholics. Mr. Hartley is a Knight of Columbus. Mrs. Hartley is a member of the Ladies' Sodality at St. Mary's and the Catholic Womens League. Fortunately, they all are of your opinion on the Spanish Civil War. They don't care much for the Republic but despise Franco as a disgrace to Catholicism.
I have been working at the family business, Hartley's Garage, since Wednesday. All the things that Ollie taught me when I helped him after school and in the summer in his garage before I started working at Alawanda are coming in handy. The pace is fast and keeps me busy.
Hamilton is a big city. More people drive here so we get more business than Ollie can in a small town like New Bedford. The oldest of Simon's two younger brothers, Bill, works in the garage with me. If the repair jobs really pile up, Simon's sister, Elaine, is allowed to work with us after school. Her father taught her all about cars because he believed that she should know about the family business. She has a real talent with engines.
… My room above the Hartleys' garage at their home is very comfortable. Thanks to the electric wall heater I don't even feel the cold. I wonder if the nickel in the nichrome used for the heating element comes from the Bas Lake Mine. I still miss Anna and hope that wherever she is she is happy and well.
May Bailey to Jessie Buchanan Jan. 7, 1939
The premiere of Mercy from Many at Cooper Union last night was not easy for Grace but was still less of an ordeal for her than I feared it would be. Of course, in the past two and a half years, she has grown all too used to enduring ordeals, poor child. At any rate, she held her head high and mostly lived up her name although it cannot have been easy to be in the presence of the men responsible for her husband's death, much less be civil to them.
She certainly wasn't looking forward to the occasion. However, she was willing to put her personal feelings aside for the sake of raising money for medical supplies for the soldiers of the Republic. She was cool but polite to Alan Belfer who had the decency to look ashamed in her presence and behave with respectful humility the whole evening.
She was warmer to Leroy Horwitz who reiterated his apology for his part in Van's death. He was grateful for her assurance that she understood that his regret was sincere and for her forgiveness. She thanked him for writing to her of Van's last moments and, especially, for conveying his last words to her.
Whatever can be said of Mr. Horwitz and Mr. Belfer as human beings, they are superb filmmakers. Mercy from Many had a crisp pace and a stirring rhythm that still left room for moments of contemplation. The dedication and humanity of the doctors and nurses was vividly displayed. So was the urgency and heartbreak of their work.
Grace, sitting beside me, gasped at some of the more harrowing scenes of carnage. She was not alone. Many of our fellow audience members did the same. Nonetheless, in spite of the horror rushing past us on the screen, Grace immediately regained and mostly kept her composure. Then, she saw a shot of Van smiling at a wounded Spanish soldier with a bandage on his head and over his right eye and saying something reassuring. Her husband's strong arms lifted one end of his comrade's stretcher. An orderly lifted another. They began to carry it off towards the trucks of the convoy.
It might have been the smile that caused Grace to gasp again and begin to sniffle as tears poured silently down her face. That and the fact that women in her stage of expectant motherhood sometimes cry easily. I think it was mostly the smile. In it was all the warmth and kindness that she had cherished in Van and knew that she would never feel again on this side of the grave except through memory.
Afterwards, Mr. Belfer introduced Grace to the audience which consisted mostly of radicals from Greenwich Village, students, antifascist German scholars from the University of the Exiles, and a handful of well-off supporters of the Republic. She said a few simple words about Van's decency and courage which would have moved a banker to tears. Then she paid tribute to the soldiers, doctors, and nurses of the Republic. She somehow managed to make it sound as though there was a chance, however slim, of holding Barcelona against the fascists.
You would never have known that in our hotel room, before coming to the premiere, she had spoken bitterly of her certainty that the Republic was doomed no matter how valiantly its defenders fought. She even wondered what she and Van and his comrades, gallant as they were, had really accomplished. She expects that very soon she will be raising money for medical supplies and other relief for the flood of desperate refugees that will be pouring out of Catalonia over the French border once Barcelona falls. At any rate, the audience gave generously. The representative from the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy was very pleased with the final result.
Mr. Belfer caught up with Grace and I as we were leaving. His face a study in shame and misery, he spoke just two words, "I'm sorry."
My daughter looked at him with contemptuous indifference to anything he might feel or say. "I hope so."
Mr. Belfer looked as though he wanted to cut his own throat with a straight razor. "I wish there were something I could do."
Grace seemed about to say something dismissive, but then a thought brought her up short and she became very somber. "There is. If there ever comes another time when you're tempted to think that other people's needs and lives are less important than your own personal glory, think again."
Next Week: Happy birthday, Grace!