After the divorce in 1949, Helen had been living alone in her 1752 little farmhouse in Madison, Connecticut which was surrounded by woods and all kinds of plants in her own property. She lived on her social security of $375 a month. She had no money, and once in a while, she borrowed, which she would pay back against her house after her death. She had a heart attack in March 1981 and had to have an oxygen tank at her bed side and take medicine regularly. Her mind was sound and her memory was marvelous. But she began losing her sight since 1992.
In 1985-86 when I was in Hartford, Huang Hua asked me to meet Helen’s doctor and see if she was OK to fly. If she felt comfortable, she was welcome to stay in China as long as she wanted. A quiet place and all necessary facilities could be arranged, including a few people at her handy help. Helen refused this offer politely, saying that “there is no quiet place in China now” and would prefer to stay in her cozy little house to continue her writing. She said: “I have no time left myself nor strength.”
Absolutely convincing of the value of her work and her ideas, the only thing Helen was concerned was to get all her manuscripts published before or after her death. She could not help imaging that the tide would turn in her direction or rather enough for her work to be published.
I visited Helen many times and had long talks with her during my one-year stay in Hartford. But I have never heard that she had uttered a word of complaint about Edgar Snow. She always held that her marriage with Edgar Snow was a Gung Ho marriage, cooperative and productive; after the divorce, Edgar did turn over a new leaf, and had a new family and two children- this was what she felt he deserved after decades of his hard work. In her memoir however, Helen thus summed up their work and life during the marriage:
“I think of those two young people in their twenties- how brave they were, how little they asked of anyone, even of each other, how much they gave and without even mentioning it, not even to each other. It was an experience worthy of a better ending than the divorce in 1949, yet the ending was implicit in it. What is a good play without pathos, without tragedy, without conflict, without the struggle between good and evil?"
It was obvious that Helen was satisfied with her marriage to Edgar Snow and couldn’t bear to part. She had a complicated feeling towards the divorce due to various reasons. She was reluctant to part from Edgar, but not immersed in love; sorry for the divorce, but not sad; meeting with misfortune, but not blaming god and man. The reason why Helen Snow was able to take such a reasonable but uncommon attitude towards love, marriage and family affairs was closely connected with her ideal and pursuit of life. Love and marriage was important to her, but not everything after all in her life. Helen wrote:
“It is not life that is important, but how it is lived. It is ten thousand times better to die struggling than in a silk bed from disease or old age.” Helen Foster Snow was continuing the spirit of these words till 89 years of age when she died peacefully in her sleep.
(October 1992, Xi’an- Wuhan)
PRIMARY SOURCE:
Helen Snow: My China Years
Helen Snow: My Yan’an Notebooks
Helen Snow: Nym Wales Collection
Helen Snow: Letters to the author between 1978 and 1992
Edgar Snow: Journey to the Beginning
Edgar Snow: Personal letters to his family and friends