May 31, 1904
My name is Felicity Thompson. I’m starting this journal to record the events of my life. One week ago, I was married to Jesse Thompson in Phoenix, Arizona. Jesse had just graduated from law school and was offered a position at a firm in California. Three days after being married, we left Arizona to begin our new life in San Francisco, California. I’ll be the first to admit that moving here so far from any family or friends was very daunting to an eighteen-year-old like myself. I had never before traveled more than 50 miles from Phoenix. Now I live hundreds of miles away.
When we arrived at our fourth-story apartment flat a block from Golden Gate Park, I took one look and knew everything would be wonderful. I was to become the mistress of my own home. When we reached the top of the stair, we came into a square reception hall that all of our rooms opened into. I am very excited to set up house and make new friends in this beautiful city.
Sunday, April 22, 1906
The sun is about to set and I dare not light a candle after dark, as it is against military orders, but I feel an urgent need to record the events of the past five and a half days. I will start on the night of Tuesday, April 17th. Jesse came home from work early and had a surprise for me.
* * * *
“Lissy, dear,” called Jesse from the main room. I was in my sewing room working on some articles of clothing to send to my niece for her birthday next month. “Liss, where are you?”
“In the sewing room, Jess,” I replied walking out into the main room. “What are you doing home so early?”
“I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh, really!” I waited for him to tell me what it was…and waited some more. “Well, what is it?” He reached into his pocket, pulled out two small pieces of paper, and handed them to me. “Tickets to Carmen!” I exclaimed.
“Yes,” he replied. “Enrico Caruso is going to be playing Don Jose, so it should be an excellent performance. So, my dear, you had better go get ready. We leave at five o’clock sharp for dinner at the Grand Palace.” I gave him a big hug and then ran to get ready.
Dinner was marvelous. The opera was more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. Enrico Caruso’s rich tenor filled not only the concert hall, but also my soul. We arrived home late, but it was worth every second we spent out. We climbed out of the hired carriage and walked to the end of the block to look out over the park and city. Standing there looking out at the city with Jesse’s arms around me, I was reminded of all the blessing I had been given since moving here two years earlier. I stood there entranced by the beauty of the great city of San Francisco. It was odd, but it was at that second of bliss that a subtle, but undeniable feeling of dread washed over me. I involuntarily shuttered,
“Cold?” asked Jesse, holding me tighter. I didn’t want to spoil the evening with one of my bad feelings, so I just passed it off as nothing.
“Yes,” I replied. “Let’s go inside.” We walked back to our building, up the stairs, and wend to bed.
The next thing I knew, the clock struck five and Jesse was getting up to light the gas stove and put some water on to heat. He had closed the door so that I could enjoy a little more sleep. I was unable to fall back asleep, so I was lying in bed, when a jolt launched my bed against the opposite wall. I quickly jumped up and was immediately tossed to the floor by its incessant rolling. I started crawling to the door as best I could, trying not to fall with each pitch of the rug underneath me. With each foot I traveled, the rolling grew heavier and louder. Rumbling, crackling noises, and the sound of falling objects filled my ears.
I reached the door after what seemed an eternity, although it couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds. I stood and grabbed onto the doorknob and twisted, but the door refused to open. The earthquake had wedged it in the door frame. I could hear Jesse yelling my name through the door. He was pushing on the opposite side, and I pulled with all my strength, when a twist of the building released the door and it leapt open.
We braced ourselves in the doorway, hugging the frame. The noise grew constantly worse. It was almost deafening. The crashing dishes, falling pictures, rattling of the tin roof, overturning bookcases, the piano being hurled across the parlor, the groaning and straining of the building itself, broken glass and falling bric-a-brac all put together made such a roar that one noise could not be distinguished from another. We never heard the chimney come smashing through the room, or the great, ocean picture, which weighed one hundred forty-five pounds, falling to the floor not six feet from where we stood in the doorway.
We were frequently tossed from our hold on the door, and only kept our feet by helping each other. The floor moved like the short, choppy waves of the sea. They ran in every direction and constantly crisscrossed each other. The ceiling moved in all different angles following the floor. As I watched this entire happening and strove to keep my balance in the doorway, my only thought was that I was not going to come out of this alive. It’s a mystery to me how a building could stand all the motion and keep its frame together, but ours did. The earthquake’s intensity began to lessen, and finally everything fell silent.
“Get dressed quickly, Liss,” said Jesse. “We need to get outside in case there’s another earthquake.” I scrambled over the debris lying on the floor to my dresser, which was miraculously still standing, and searched for something warm to wear. It is amazing the change of values a person could have in so short a time. I gave no thought to the dress I had cherished the night before. I was only searching for the warmest outfit I had. I finally pulled out a coarse wool skirt and a long coat lined with red silk and decorated with a lot of trimming. Did I choose this coat because it was pretty? No, actually I chose it because it was long and would keep me warm. As soon as I was dressed, I found a satchel, opened my jewelry box, and put all my jewelry and money into the satchel. Then Jesse and I made our way down the stairs to the street.
The street was thick with people and appeared to be a sea of white, as most of them were standing in the street with only their nightclothes on. “Felicity, we need to try and find out what’s going on down at the business section so I can find out about my office. Let’s walk around to the hospital and see if anyone knows anything,” said Jesse. I took his offered arm and we slowly made our way three blocks down to the hospital.
As we turned the first corner, I was shocked by what I saw. Electrical poses were standing at varying angles. Chimneys were fallen onto roofs and into streets. Bricks and glass lay everywhere. The stone steps of one house were gaping apart and the wooden steps of another house were splintered to pieces. The houses were at strange angles and stood as dark shadows against the dawn lit sky. We walked another block down and had to cross the street to get to the hospital. A water main had broken and water was flooding the street. We walked along the edge of the streaming water, trying not to get wet.
The hospital was a one-story structure made of stone and topped with a tiled roof. As we rounded the last corner it came to sight, and it made my heart sink. Almost all of the stone facing had fallen away. The chimney was gone and the roof’s tiles were twisted and broken. The wood that had been supporting the roof was showing and the stone arch over the entrance was mostly crumbled and looked ready to fall.
No one seemed to have time to devote to our questions. The matron of the hospital was lying unconscious at the entrance, and the attendants were trying to get the ambulance out of the surrounding debris. Jesse rushed to help move some of the stones out of the way. When they finally removed the bulk of the stones, the frightened horses lugged the ambulance over the remaining debris.
Jesse rejoined me saying, “Let’s go see what damage has been done to the flat. No one here seems to have heard anything about the business district. We’ll just have to hope that my office is still in one piece.”
I followed blindly, not daring to use my voice. I felt as if this was all a dream and that I would wake at any moment to find the word would once again be as it had been: peaceful and carefree.
We reached our building and walked up the stairs to our flat to take measure of the situation. I walked over mountains of my best china, porcelain, and cut glass with no feeling of regret, no sight, and no tears. Everything seemed so insignificant now. The world we had lived in only yesterday seemed so far away. The things of our old life no longer held any value. Human life was the only thing that mattered in this new world.
When I walked into the parlor, the smell of smoke reached my nose. I walked over to the window, which faced the business district, and saw spirals of smoke beginning to rise from different places. “We’re completely at the mercy of those fires,” said Jesse who had come to stand behind me. “The water mains are probably all broken and who know if the reservoirs have been destroyed or not. Jason White from downstairs just came up to tell me they’ve turned off all the gas and water to the houses. The power-houses were destroyed, so the electricity is gone too.”
“What are we going to do, Jess?” I cried, falling into his open arms.
“First things first. We need to find something to eat. I’ll get some bricks, wood and matches, so we can build a fire outside. You see what you can find in the kitchen.” He was taking command just as I have always imagined he had done in his old military days. I dried my tears and went to do as he said. We met outside our building with our supplies in tow.
We were sitting on the steps of our home eating our meager breakfast when we felt a small trembler and scrambled to the road. It only lasted a few seconds, but was enough to remind us of what had occurred in the early morning hours. We spent the rest of the day running for the road when we felt tremblers and helping homeless passers-by who had drifted out from the Mission district, where we could see great clouds of angry smoke rising. They brought tales of raging fires destroying everything in their path. The firefighters were not able to contain them due to the broken water mains.
As night descended upon us, we got some bedding together and set out for the park. Once we found a good spot to set up camp, Jesse spread a mattress under the protective branches of some bushes, with a great oak tree towering over us. We crawled in and did our best to get comfortable. My long coat had kept me warm all day, but in the frosty spring air I shivered under the blankets.
During the night, the fires started by the earthquake made such a reddish glow in the night sky that we could easily see everything in the park eve thought he fires were still two miles away. We were not allowed to have lights in the park and soon after the sun set, all was quiet as could be except the wail of a baby, the clang of an ambulance, and the never ending roll of wheels and trampling of feet as more refugees continued to flood the Golden Gate Park.
* * * *
Four long days later, the firefighters got the fires under control and we were able to return to our flat. Jesse’s law books were destroyed, but our home was still standing and we were both all right. Through the last few days, I have seen both the humanity and kindness of our society and the inhumanity and evil side of our society. People were helping complete strangers, while others were picking through the ruins of houses and stealing anything they could find. It is my continued prayer that all will end well with our beautiful city. I must retire now. It is growing too dark to see the paper.
