“Then hope died…”

Annie Fields wrote in her 1911 work, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, “And so the letters went on, with the flickering lights and shadows of human life reflected on their pages, until she wrote one day in June, 1909: ‘Dear, I do not know what to do with me!’ Then hope died; we knew she could no longer stay with us, for like a little child, she had always planned some pretty scheme to cheer the paths of others, as well as her own, when the way was difficult:”

Sarah to Annie, June 1909

Dearest Annie

I do so long to see you . . .  I believe it would do me more good than any thing. you always help me to get a good hold on the best of myself. but I still feel too weak to plan any journeys.  They still have to carry me ..from one room to another and I ache dreadfully by night and by day.  I don’t know what to do about me.  I did so [hope ?] to be out of doors… —