A few years after the death of William Sydney Porter, Thomas H. Tate, a close childhood friend, recalled one of their adventures, from when the two boys were probably around 12 or 13:
He had a beautiful country place out on the Guilford College Road. There was a greenhouse, flowers, shrubbery, and an immense rustic arbor there and it was used for dances and had an upper and lower floor. Miss Sallie Coleman was visiting in Greensboro and either expressed a desire for magnolias or Will conceived that she would like to have some, so we started about midnight on the six miles’ “hike” to West Green to spoil and loot. Strange to say, the memory of the moonlit night is with me now even after all these years. . . . I can also feel the creepy sensation that I felt when we mounted the fence and started across the open field for the trees and the relief that came when we crossed that fence with the loot. We carried them back and laid them on Miss Sallie’s doorstep.
This simple childhood escapade would normally not have merited inclusion in the biography of an author, but in 1905, when she was 37, Sara (“Sallie”) Coleman learned that Will Porter had grown up to become the famous writer O. Henry. She sent him a letter of reintroduction and, after two years of correspondence, they reunited and married.
In later years, Sara Porter would retell the story of their lives together as if it were a fairy tale. Yet the marriage proved to be a disappointment to them both; they were separated within three months and remained so for most of the three years left of Will Porter’s life. A fond glimpse of their relationship can be found in the final pages of “Let Me Check Your Pulse,” his last story—and his most autobiographical work. Sara Porter would cherish that scene for the rest of her life, and it became part of the quasi-fictional romance she would tell reporters and biographers.
“Let Me Check Your Pulse” is available to read (free!) at our Story of the Week site, along with an introduction offering more details about Will Porter’s marriage to Sara and his final illness.
