Jan. 10, Jack receives his first letter from Joy. Sept. 24, They meet at the Eastgate Hotel in Oxford. Sept. 26. Joy is staying at the Kilns. Dec. 6. Jack meets Joy in London, invites her to spend Christmas at the Kilns.
Dec. 18, 1952 to Jan. 3, Joy and sons stay at the Kilns. December 25, Christmas Day. Jack gives Joy Davidman a copy of George MacDonald’s Diary of an Old Soul.
February Joy Davidman becomes a member of the Episcopal Church and is confirmed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. November Joy, Douglas, and David leave during the first week for London on board the Cunard White Star liner Britannia. Douglas Gresham celebrates his eighth birthday on November 10 during the eight-day voyage. They settle in at the Avoca House Hotel, London, for the next eighteen months. Happy Birthday, Douglas!! December 17, Michaelmas Term ends. Joy Davidman and sons David and Douglas arrive at the Kilns.
April 5-9, Joy Davidman and sons are probably at the Kilns. August 5, Jack writes to Chad Walsh. Joy Davidman gets her divorce from Bill Gresham. Bill marries Renée Pierce. October 27, Jack goes to London to take part in a debate. He has tea with Joy Davidman and her parents Joe and Jen Davidman at the Piccadilly Hotel beforehand.
November 29, Jack gives his inaugural lecture at Cambridge University. Joy Davidman attends the event. Jack celebrates his fifty-sixth birthday. December 15, Sometime in mid-December Joy and her sons spend four days at the Kilns. March 23, Joy writes to William Gresham; she indicates that she and Jack have been discussing a book that eventually became Till We Have Faces.
July Joy publishes Smoke on the Mountain. August 10, Joy Gresham and her sons rent No. 10, Old High Street, Headington, one mile from the Kilns, and after living 21 months in London. September 2-20, Jack visits Arthur Greeves in Ireland. Jack mentions to Arthur that Joy Gresham has been denied permission to stay in England.
Sept. 19, Geoffrey Bles releases Surprised by Joy. April 23, Jack marries Joy in a civil ceremony at the Oxford Registry Office, St. Giles, Oxford. April 25, Jack tells Roger Green about his marriage to Joy as a matter of friendship and expediency. October 18, This evening, Katharine Farrer calls Joy Davidman, whose left femur breaks as she goes to answer the telephone. November Joy Davidman has three operations this month.
November 14, Joy is seriously ill, and Jack determines to marry her in the eyes of the church. November 17, Jack meets with the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt. Rev. Harry Carpenter, to ask if he would permit one of the Anglican priests to marry Jack and Joy. December 24, The Times prints the announcement of Jack’s marriage to Mrs. Joy Gresham.
March 21, Jack marries Joy in an ecclesiastical ceremony at the Wingfield Hospital, Oxford. Peter Bide presides. April 2, Joy is moved to the Kilns. Bill Gresham writes to Joy stating that he would want the boys to live with him in the event of her death. April 6, Jack writes two forceful letters to William Gresham.
June 18, Joy seems to be recovering. Jack’s pain is less. June 21, Joy is bed-ridden in the Kilns sitting room. July 9, Jack writes to Mrs. Johnson, stating that Joy’s cancer is arrested. He now recognizes that he had osteoporosis rather than a slipped disc. December 10, Joy is able to walk again.
January Joy’s cancer is diagnosed as arrested. April 9, This week Jack and Joy spend a honeymoon at a country hotel. July 4, Jack and Joy fly to Ireland for two weeks, visiting Louth, Down, and Donegal. They enjoy blue mountains, yellow beaches, dark fuchsia, breaking waves, donkeys, the smell of peat, and the heather.
February 23, Joy accompanies Jack back to Cambridge in the afternoon. Joy checks into The Lion Hotel. Tonight is the Pepys dinner for which Jack is the speaker, giving the Panegyric. Today is the birthday of Samuel Pepys. Presumably Joy is in attendance at the talk. June 22, Jack and Joy leave for three weeks in Ireland. They spend time at both The Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down (next slide) and at the Fort Royal Hotel, Rathmullan, County Donegal.
The Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down, Northern Ireland
July 21, Jack and Joy dine with T. S. Eliot and his wife. October 18, Jack writes to Mary Shelburne, his first letter indicating that Joy’s cancer has returned. March 30, Joy writes to Bill Gresham, admitting that she is losing ground to the cancer. April 3-14, Jack and Joy vacation in Greece with Roger and June Lancelyn Green, visiting Athens, Rhodes, and Crete. Jack is not lecturing during Easter term, so he is free to travel.
May 20, Joy has her right breast removed due to cancer. June 20, Jack tells Warren that he was up all night with Joy. Joy tells Hibbie that this is the end. June 21, Joy is taken to the Acland Nursing Home, and Douglas is brought home from Lapley Grange school. July 11, Joy seems much better.
July 13, At 6:15 a.m. Warren is awakened by Joy’s screaming. Jack calls the doctor. At 1:30 p.m. they take her to the Radcliffe. Joy Lewis dies at 10:15 p.m. July 18, Joy’s funeral at the chapel of the Oxford Crematorium.