In summer the two of them, accompanied by a groom Shanghai Map , went for long rides on horseback along the coast of the Yellow Sea, and on Shanghai Map several occasions my mother recalled meeting smugglers. They had a huge organised racket going on beyond one of the estuaries, in the early mornings. There were always lots of bundles and baskets coming ashore from the sampans, but I never paid attention to what was in them, and the smugglers didn’t usually mind us riding through. And one time your grandmother took us children by car to see the retreat of a warlord’s army. They were retreating down the road as we drove along and then we were ordered off the road. It made us very late home, Grandpa was worried frantic, and Doris was so angry about being prevented from driving home that she wrote to the general demanding an apology.
In any event, Philip’s wife left him and Theresa remained at the home. Almost two years had passed until, one day, Theresa simply vanished. When her family and friends asked Philip what had become of her, he told them he didn’t know. At least, that was what Philip said.
The mystery of Theresa’s disappearance continued for several months. It ended in March of 1904 when Porter A. Wright, owner of Holly’s hardware/general store, received a letter from the Reed City Sanitarium. The communication informed him that a young girl died at their institution. In her possession was an unsigned letter written on letterhead from Mr. Wright’s store. They asked him if he had further information on the girl.
We’re not certain what Wright told them, but it seems apparent that he knew something of what was going on between Theresa and Philip. The two had been sending anonymous letters to each other and Wright seemed to be the go between for their clandestine communications.
