Cordelia's rich and influential family probably thought she was marrying beneath her. She had already turned down at least two other suitors, including John Maule Machar (a law partner of Canada's first prime minister) and a mystery man named William whose goodbye letter ended dramatically:
"....if it is your duty, Corrie, to marry this man then it is my duty - doubly tried, in all love, to relieve you from the cause of your misery, my presence, and it is for that purpose I am going away....Farewell, farewell, farewell, my love, my love farewell." (1)
Instead, Corrie married Archie Knight, whose work experience included time on the family farm and in lumber camps and rural schoolhouses. She married him on July 28th, 1875 in St. Martin's Anglican Church in Montreal and promptly reacted as any sensible woman might: she panicked.
Soon after the wedding, Archie returned to Hawkesbury to get his new school organized and to prepare a house for his bride. Corrie was supposed to join him there, but as the days stretched into weeks and she didn't come, frantic letters began to fly back and forth. Then she fell silent. Archie wrote a desperate letter to his new mother-in-law:
"What have I done, or neglected to do or say?. . .If I am to be the curse of her and consequently of your existence the least thing I can do is to make it as light as possible. Heaven forgive me if I sometimes think there is still one remedy for all this agony I am unwillingly causing those whom I love best on earth. I thought I would go mad to-night as I thought and paced along the deserted streets." (2)
Did Corrie's mother intervene? Was there a showdown, or did Corrie just come to terms with the situation on her own? We don't know. But the tension finally broke. Corrie joined Archie in Hawkesbury, and soon they were genuinely happy there.
Years later, Archie said he hated to remember "those dark days of 1875" but he always loved a song that Corrie sang to him one evening on the sofa. He called it Sleep On, but it may have been this one: Lorena.
Posted today on Storydello.
