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Dec. 23-29
A Sunday at home. Letters on Monday from Sally and Jabe. They are uneasy at my long silence ....Write Sally a long letter on Xmas Eve. Go to church on Xmas Day and hear Mr. Page ....The church is very prettily decorated for the season. The singing was cheering. After church I go up to Rugby and stay until Thursday morning. Have a pleasant time. Wednesday is Susie's 21st birthday so we have a dinner party in honor of it. Only some young men invited. Plenty of good cheer and a dinner in the evening. Thursday I take dinner with cousin Isabella and see cousin James Watson. He was released by order of the President. [James Watson was a postmaster under the Confederacy.] He and his wife and daughters are now enroute for home. Ma and the children dined with them at Orange Dale on Xmas Day. I get home Thursday evening and am suffering with toothache. Mary Lewis in town for a day and night. Such----
[Here the diary ends abruptly. There appears to have been a last page which is now missing. The last word, "such" probably introduced the phrase "Such quiet times or such dull times." Missing from the year 1866 is Louisa's usual New Years Eve appraisal of the prior twelve months. Surely she looked back at the three big tragedies, Nannie and Dave's "child of sin and shame," little Eliza's death and Mammy Eliza's death and concluded that the rod was still upon them. She may also have though of the freedmen and freedwomen who had left Pantops for their independent lives. Louisa may also have wondered what the year ahead would hold for her and the reduced household. Times had changed, responsibilities had passed to new hands, the family must now pick up work done in former times by the servants. With all the changes, two things remained. The inportance of family had not diminished and the religious faith relied upon for courage was more necessary then ever.]
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