Three Thanksgivings

Three Thanksgivings Summary | Detailed Summary

As a widow with two grown children, Delia Morrison lives alone. Both her children want her to live with them; however, she has letters in hand from each of them. The first letter is from her son Andrew. He tells his mother that she should come live with him and his wife Annie. He has a room for her. He suggests that she rent out her house for income or sell it and invest the money. He says that her maid, Sally, is getting too old to help her. Andrew then invites her for Thanksgiving, enclosing travel money with the letter and asking her to stay with them afterward.

The second letter is from Delia's daughter Jean. She has also invited her mother to come for Thanksgiving and then stay on with them. She and her husband Joe offer her a room in their home. Like Andrew, Jean too has sent travel money. Jean wants her mother to see her children; her eldest baby has grown older and she has newborn twins. Jean's husband wants Delia to sell her house and invest the money in his business; he will pay her interest on her investment. Delia places both letters in her desk.

Delia is a tall, attractive woman whose appearance commands respect. She lives in the Welcome House that her father, Senator Welcome, built. She was born and raised there; it is the finest house in town. Even after traveling abroad with her father, Delia always though the Welcome House was the best house. When her husband died, Delia had to take out a small mortgage on the house. She rents rooms to boarders to help pay the interest on the loan; she still has to pay back the $2000 principal. Delia doesn't like housing boarders but she handles it with patience.

One November evening, Sally, the maid, approaches Delia to announce dinner. Delia goes to the table with as much dignity as if she had 20 guests. After dinner she receives a visit from Mr. Peter Butts. He is the man who arranged the mortgage loan for her.

Mr. Butts is a stout, somewhat pompous blond-haired man. He is a self-made man; Delia has known him since they were children, when he was poor and she was rich. He is also a prideful man who is happy that their positions have changed. Mr. Butts tries to propose marriage to her with the notion that, since she cannot pay the principal on her mortgage, she will not have to sell the house if she marries him.

He has proposed to her before; the first time was when they were young. The second time was shortly after her husband died. He had always been a friend of hers as well as her husband's; he was a member of the church where Delia's husband was the minister.

She will not marry Butts at any price, preferring to take in boarders forever if she has to. She still loves her husband and imagines meeting him again one day in Heaven. She doesn't want to have to explain how she was forced to marry Peter Butts. So she tells Peter that she doesn't want to marry him; she doesn't want to marry anyone. He reminds her that the principal on her mortgage is due two years from Thanksgiving. She says that maybe by then, she will find a way to come up with the money.

Delia decides to visit her son Andrew and his wife Annie for Thanksgiving. They have a room set up for her. It is a decent size and has two windows with a nice view. Andrew, like his late father, is a minister. Delia was never strong on the doctrine but her husband never knew this; she didn't discuss it with him.

During the week that Delia stays with her son, the older members of Andrew's church invite her out. They all get along well with her but it makes her feel old to be around them. Andrew's house and town are too small for Delia. She is used to the spaciousness of the Welcome House and is eager to get home. Andrew is hurt and disappointed that she won't stay with them for good. She tells him not to take it personally; she just loves her home.

When Delia returns to the Welcome House, she starts to think about ways to come up with the money to pay off her mortgage. She begins to evaluate her assets. She has a lot of furniture, especially a large selection of chairs in the attic from when her father held political meetings; the chairs would not be worth much, though. She has an extensive collection of linens from housing boarders.

She has also has a large china collection from holding church receptions in their home when her husband was alive. It makes her think about how well suited her home would be as a hotel; but the Hoskins House, the nearby hotel, is never full, so there is certainly no need for another hotel in town. She considers opening a boarding house for schoolgirls, but the preparation and time involved in establishing this would be too much. Mr. Butts would not give her the time.

Just as her father, Senator Welcome, had been, Delia was well-liked in her town. When her husband worked as a minister, Delia often entertained the women from town and the surrounding county. This gives her an idea.

Delia enlists the help of a friend of hers named Mrs. Isabelle Carter Blake; Delia and Mrs. Blake had gone to school together. Mrs. Blake is well known worldwide for her work with children and for a book she has written. Delia invites every woman in the area to meet Mrs. Blake at her house. Mrs. Blake is also friends with an Italian Countess and when news of this spreads among the invitees, excitement about the event increases.

On the day of the gathering, hundreds of guests arrive. Both Mrs. Blake and the Countess attend Delia's party. The guests are impressed with Delia's ease with these eminent women. Soon Mrs. Blake addresses the women, telling them about the work she does and how she is helped in that work by women's clubs. She explains that women's clubs are forming in cities and towns all over the country. Women form the clubs to help one another and Mrs. Blake says that it is time that their town, Haddleton, had one.

The Countess addresses the audience too. She gives her history, explaining that she is an American who married in Italy. She too talks to the women about women's clubs.

The day after the gathering the Countess leaves but Mrs. Blake stays in town. She speaks at several church meetings, where she addresses even larger groups of admirers. She tells her audiences that they are in need of a "Rest and Improvement Club." She thinks that the women need a place where they can rest after coming into town to do their shopping, somewhere they can meet with other women to talk and relax. She says that all they need to do is organize the club and pay a small regular fee.

The women have many questions, the most frequent of which is where the club should meet. Mrs. Blake suggests that Delia host the club at the Welcome House; she has the room and can run the club more cheaply than if they had to rent space. Mrs. Blake gives out facts and figures that explain the cost of running the club. She suggests that each member's fee should be 10 cents a week.

Then Mrs. Blake asks Delia if she can feed the women for that amount. Delia says that, for that amount, she can offer them tea, coffee, cheese and crackers. More importantly, she says, she can offer them a place to rest and hold meetings, as well as a reading room.

By the time Mrs. Blake leaves, the women agree to form the club. Hundreds of women join. There is a lot of work involved in running the club. On Saturdays the house is full and on Sundays Delia stays in bed to rest; but she likes having the club and even likes the work. A year flies by quickly.

The next Thanksgiving, Delia visits her daughter Jean for a week. Jean gives her mother a room that is the same size as the one at Andrew's house. This room is one floor higher and has a sloped ceiling. The house is full of babies. Jean's oldest child is getting around on his own and getting into everything. There are also the twins and a new baby. The family has only one overworked servant and one nursemaid, which is inadequate.

Jean's husband Joe tells Delia that his business is doing well but that he desperately needs capital. He urges her to come live with them; he says it would be a big help to Jean. Jean can't visit her mother because she can't leave the children and she rarely has visitors because they live in a suburb that is made up of equally busy mothers. Delia declines and returns home after her weeklong stay.

Shortly after Delia's return, Peter Butts calls on her. She has paid him interest on her mortgage and he wants to know how she came up with the money; he wonders if she somehow swindled it out of the women from the club. Delia tells him that his interest is modest and easy to meet; she asks him if he knows how high interest rates are in Colorado. Women have the vote there, Delia adds.

Then Butts warns her that she only has one more year to come up with the principal for the mortgage or else she will have to sell her house. This statement fills Delia with renewed energy to continue the women's club.

Delia is a good manager. The women would never have agreed to a fee of five dollars a year, but when it is broken down into payments of 10 cents per week, even the poorest woman feels that she can manage the expense. The money never has to be collected because the women always bring it with them. Sally presents a cash box at the door as they arrive for tea.

So Delia focuses her efforts on enlarging the membership and keeping up attendance. She is good at this; she plans carefully, setting up different departments: she has a boys club and reading clubs and study clubs. She also hosts meetings of all kinds in her home. Some are meetings that used to be held at the church but are now held at the Welcome House. Others are new meetings. Delia provides refreshments for each club and meeting and the women return every week.

After the first six months, the club has 500 members. On Saturdays Delia hires two helpers for half a day each and pays them each 50 cents. She also stocks the library with new magazines for $50 a year. Another $100 a year pays for fuel, lights and other miscellaneous expenses. She is able to provide refreshments to the members for four cents per person.

At the end of the first year, Delia has earned enough to pay the interest on her mortgage and has saved $1000 toward the principal. She keeps her money behind her bed in a safe that no one, not even Sally, knows about. In the second year, the club does even better. She makes more than $1000 in profit and has enough money to pay off her mortgage.

When Thanksgiving nears again, Delia writes to her son and daughter, inviting them and their families for Thanksgiving at the Welcome House. She sends them the travel money and they all come to visit. There is plenty of room and plenty of food at Delia's house. At dinner, Delia carves the turkey with the grace of a queen.

After Thanksgiving, Mr. Butts calls on Delia once more. She hands him a check for the remaining interest and principal of her mortgage. Mr. Butts hates to receive it. He says he didn't know she has a bank account and asks her where she got the money. He cannot imagine that it may have come from running the women's club.

Delia tells him that she appreciates his interest but she doesn't answer his question. Mr. Butts assumes that friends must have loaned her the money. He warns her that she will be no better off if she takes a loan from someone else. Delia tells him not to quarrel with her over money and says that she wants to be friends. Mr. Butts then leaves.