Hugh and Madeleine called daily when they were apart from one another. With Hugh working late, when their children were old enough to get up and get to school on their own, Madeleine stayed up late and slept in late so she and Hugh could have more quality time with one another.
Here is more information about how Madeleine and Hugh met, their wedding, children, and quotes by Madeleine about marriage.
Born:
Madeleine L'Engle Camp: November 29, 1918 in New York, New York.Hugh Franklin: August 24, 1916 in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Died:
Madeleine: September 6, 2007 in Litchfield, Connecticut. Madeleine died from natural causes.Hugh: September 26, 1986 in Litchfield, Connecticut. Hugh died from cancer.
How Madeleine and Hugh Met:
Hugh and Madeleine met while both were working on Chekhov's Broadway play The Cherry Orchard. The couple was married a year later.Madeleine about their first date: "But we had talked for ten hours without noticing the time passing. I let myself into my apartment thinking elatedly, 'I have met the man I want to marry.'"
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 45.
Proposal:
After the two listened to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Hugh read poetry of Conrad Aiken, "Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread." Hugh then asked Madeleine to marry him.Wedding Date and Info:
Hugh and Madeleine were married on January 26, 1946 at 11 a.m. at St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois. Having their wedding in Chicago was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Two friends were with them and served as their witnesses.They used Hugh's grandmother's gold wedding band and engagement ring. The engagement ring had a small diamond in a Victorian setting. Madeleine was 27 years old and Hugh was 29 years old.
They had a luncheon at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, then went to the theatre to work in two performances. Hugh and Madeleine spent their wedding night in the bridal suite at the Edgewater Beach Hotel.
Madeleine about their wedding night: "Hugh had ordered champagne and sandwiches ... It was a good wedding night."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 84.
Children:
Madeleine and Hugh raised three children.- Josephine: Born in June 1947. Josephine is married to Alan. They have three children.
- Bion: Born in March 1952. Bion taught English at the University of Connecticut. He is married to Laurie, an internist.
- Maria: In 1956, after her parents died when she was seven years old, Maria was adopted by Madeleine and Hugh. Her parents were close friends of Hugh and Madeleine.
Residence:
Madeleine and Hugh had an apartment in New York City for much of their marriage life and an 18th-century Connecticut farmhouse they named "Crosswicks" which means where two roads meet.Occupations:
Madeleine: Actress and author of fiction, plays, essays, memoirs, biblical commentary, and poetry. Her novel, A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery Award.Hugh: Actor. Hugh was best known for his role as Dr. Charles Tyler Sr on the television series, "All My Children."
Madeleine L'Engle Quotes About Marriage:
Madeleine about privacy in marriage: "I learned fairly early in my marriage that I did not have to confide everything on my mind to my husband; this would be putting on him burdens which I was supposed to carry myself. When a bride insists on telling her lover everything, I suspect she is looking for a father, not a husband. Some of my life was mine to be known by me alone."Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 73.
Madeleine about romance in marriage: "A love which depends solely on romance, on the combustion of two attracting chemistries tends to fizzle out ... A long-term marriage has to move beyond chemistry to compatibility, to friendship, to companionship. It is certainly not that passion disappears, but that it is conjoined with other ways of love."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 76.
Madeleine on idiosyncrasies: "Sometimes idiosyncrasies which used to be irritating beecome endearing, part of the complexity of a partner who has become woven deep into our own selves."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 89.
Madeleine about Hugh's illness: "I sit by the bed, hold Hugh's hand, try to help him eat when meals are brought in. That is all I can do. Tr to affirm with quiet love, a love that has built slowly over forty years."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 100.
Madeleine looking back at their marriage: "Our love has been anything but perfect and anything but static ... There have been times when we have misunderstood each other, demanded too much of each other, been insensitive to the other's needs. I do not believe there is any marriage where this does not happen."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 100.
Madeleine about having time alone without their kids: "Let us try to remember for their sakes as well as ours that every once in a while for our development we must be alone."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 156.
Madeleine about fidelity in marriage: "Intercourse between two people who are totally committed to each other is a beautiful thing for both. Hugh and I have been true to each other in this day and age of casual affairs, and I'm grateful that we have. I believe that fidelity increases the joy, the actual physical pleasure of lovemaking, and that in a casual affair or a one-night stand, love is not made, only sex."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 184-185.
Madeleine about losing Hugh: "But my grief is a clean grief. I loved my husband for forty years. That love has not and does not end, and that is good ... Hugh will always be part of me, go with me wherever I go, and that is good because, despite our faults and flaws and failures, what we gave each other was good."
Source: Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, page 230.
