A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day

Marjorie Cornelia Day, known as Daysey, dazzled everyone who met her, starting when she was a little girl in rural Strasburg, PA, then at Wellesley College, and later at Oxford University. There, in 1926, Daysey fell ill with a mysterious disease, lapsed into a coma, and stayed "asleep" (though not comatose) for 17 years. Even hospital staff members caring for her during her unresponsive years found Daysey intriguing. Then, in 1943, inexplicably, Daysey was fine. A serendipitous encounter shortly after she emerged from her zombie-like state led to her reinstatement as a teacher. First, she taught Latin to young girls in New England and Washington, DC, but soon she became a charismatic college professor, teaching social science courses to the daughters of power in the nation's capital. Summers were different: Daysey cooked bacon and eggs on the rocks at Rockport, MA, for mill and sweatshop workers and taught the women there how to write poetry, play tennis, hike and swim. Daysey lived almost 100 years (minus those 17). She never learned what had made her sick. But now we know. A Life Interrupted braids the story of Daysey's unique experience with the story of the author's 35-year quest to discover the nature of her mysterious disease and what actually happened.