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| Marble Springs 2.0 screenshot of Sadie Stoner |
What we know
1874 -1892
Family came to Marble Springs from Maryland. School friends with Laura and Emmy. Married Tom Stoner, blacksmith for the quarry. Died in childbirth with her first child, Katy, one year later.
Scraps
Sadie had always collected paper
and wrote in secret.
On the edges of smudged newsprint
old bills and backs of envelopes,
knights on shining chargers
vowed to slay all her dragons.
Once, she almost saw her creations—
but it was only Old Joe’s mine.
After Zandra Miller took the only teaching job,
Sadie married Tom—since he’d been asking.
She wrote how it should have been,
fingers grasping at her pen1.
The cache of paper grew,
sewn into chapters and hidden
in a flour sack behind the wood pile.
She knew there’d be no time
after children came—
Millie said they’d sap strength.
Complications developed
with her first child.
She sat up in bed writing—
letters, she lied to Laura,
who’d only come to help.
She shouted at the pain, and
they told her to fight
to push to live to now push.
The pain breathed into her
with bursts of dragon’s fire.
Tom’s rough hand caressed
her forehead, smearing the sweat.
Sadie tore his hand away.
Stared at the newly planked floor
where gossamer and lace butterflies
lay stripped into birthing rags.
Her breath tore out for her knights.
But her knights leered at her
and sank further into their poker games.
And her body tore itself into more strips.
Tom named the child Katy,
and burned the scraps of paper
for kindling.
Connections
Portal
Sources
Portal caption and links
A drawing of dragon.
Susannah Smith
Doc Nancy
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| Portal for secret connections |