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Vivian [sic] died early this morning. ThisHaigh-Wood, Mauriceand VHE's death;b2 was quite unexpected, even to the doctor of the sanatorium: I understand however from Maurice that she had had high blood pressure for some time past, and her heart seems to have failed. I understand that the coroner has to be notified.1 Maurice is going out there this morning, and I shall see him in the evening.
One’s reactions are never simple, unless one is quite insensitive. At the moment I feel quite dazed, and at the same time all the nightmare of the past flows back. The thought of this unhappy, useless, tormented and tormenting life appals me. May she rest in peace.2
I shall wear half mourning for six months.3 SoEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)marriage to;e6to outsiders;b3 far as all but a few friends know (and they do not know a great deal) there was normal affection until increasing dementia caused inevitable alienation and inevitable separation when co-habitation finally made my life impossible. I wish to preserve decorum for the sake of the dead, and also for the sake of the living. SoHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9following VHE's death;f8 I think that for the present our own plans and deliberations should be kept to ourselves. I am thankful that I shall see you in April (forEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother)terminal leukaemia;k7 it seems pretty certain that I shall not be summoned to Henry before then) so that we can talk about the future, for a year hence. We have many practical problems to solve.
I must get over the next few days before I write more.
1.VivienEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)her death;f3;a2n Haigh Wood Eliot died at Northumberland House, Green Lanes (Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington), on 22 Jan. 1947, aged 57; her death was registered the following day. The death certificate records the cause of death as: ‘1a. Syncope. b. Cardio-vascular degeneration.’
2.PeterEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)her death;f3TSE's shifting response to;a3 Quennell, Customs and Characters: Contemporary Portraits (1982), 118: ‘Tom’s sorrow was deep and undisguised. “I’ve not a single second of happiness to look back on, and that makes it worse,” he confessed to John [Hayward].’
3.Cf. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’: ‘I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled’ (l. 122); ‘I shall part my hair behind’ (123); ‘I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach.’ Victorian protocols for mourning prescribed stages of mourning dress over a period of up to two years: ‘full mourning’ could be followed by ‘half mourning’ – a stage that allowed for the reintroduction of subtle shades of colour including grey and lavender.
3.HenryEliot, Henry Ware, Jr. (TSE's brother) Ware Eliot (1879–1947), TSE’s older brother: see Biographical Register.
5.MauriceHaigh-Wood, Maurice Haigh-Wood was eight years younger than his sister Vivien. InHaigh-Wood, Emily ('Ahmé') Cleveland (TSE's sister-in-law, née Hoagland) 1930 he married a 25-year-old American dancer, Emily Cleveland Hoagland – known as known as ‘Ahmé’ (she was one of the Hoagland Sisters, who had danced at Monte Carlo) – and they were to have two children.