Ramsey County History – Fall 2016: “‘Abide with Me:’ Grace Craig Stork, 1916”

‘Abide with Me:’ Grace Craig Stork, 1916
Author: Rebecca A. Ebnet-Mavencamp

Beginning in 1903, the family of William and Grace Stork lived on St. Paul’s Cleveland Avenue. Grace began to experience eye pain in 1914, and two years later she underwent surgery for “orbital cancer,” which removed a tumor from her sinus cavity. The operation bought Grace some time, but the last months of her life are chronicled in the diary entries of her adult daughter, Florence. This article reproduces many of those entries, which range from reports about the weather and routine household tasks to comments about Grace’s pain, her medications, the palliative efforts of the doctors, and the loving support Grace received from family members, relatives, and neighbors. Writing in her diary seems to have been one of Florence’s ways for dealing with the heartbreak she was experiencing, especially as Grace approached her death, which came on September 16th. Florence continued writing in her diary nearly every day, thereafter, but these humdrum entries masked her feelings of loss and grief. At the same time, they helped her to cope as life went on.
PDF of Ebnet-Mavencamp article