Some days are just better than others. Some days hold the unexpected and this was such a day. I knew it was going to be special, to see the Sewall-Belmont House, but nothing like it actually was.
Doris Stevens, Alice Paul and others, whose names I don't know, climbed these stairs after standing at the White house so that we could vote. They fasted and waited and dreamed that we would all vote, if given the right. They held banners which I had seen in photographs and now live under glass. Fortunately when I realized what I was looking at and gasped, no one was within ear shot. 
I was fortunate to visit with a new friend, Anne Grant, who had slept in the Sewall-Belmont House after having lemonade with Alice Paul and Wilma Scott Heide. Anne took this picture of me at the front door. It seemed impossible to explain to Anne what it all meant to me and then something happened that made it clear.
While wandering around the house, I found the library. Rows and rows of books, boxes of documents, long shiny tables and chairs. Hard to believe but there among all of the leather bound books, I saw mine, The Hungry Heart ~ now that was an audible gasp. It seemed to just manifest before my very eyes, as if I had wished it. The Sewall-Belmont House had not ordered it; rather a woman who worked there had ~ so I never guessed where it had landed. 
Beyond anything imaginable, she asked me to sign it. Crazy. I sat and signed my book to the Sewall-Belmont House. Why I did not burst into flames and vaporize, I cannot explain.
my heart just soars at the sight of you standing on that balcony! And to know that you take your place in that library of contributions to the power of women brings a tear to my eye. Certainly, you were always meant to go down in herstory!
Posted by: diane | November 04, 2007 at 04:24 PM
this makes my heart swell for you!
Posted by: Ruthie | November 05, 2007 at 08:33 AM
It is as it should be. Bravo Zoe!
Posted by: Melissa | November 05, 2007 at 12:01 PM