Here's my take on what happened to our beloved Magda.
Fed up with everything that happened, and knowing she can't do anything more, she decides to leave Collinwood and Collinsport. Barnabas understands, and with new help for him on the scene, he not only wishes her a fond departure, but gives her some money to allow her to start a new life.
With her immediate family now all deceased, and being a pariah among her Gypsy clan, she travels as far away as possible, out to the west coast, to San Francisco. There, with Barnabas' money (but being very frugal with it), she rents a small flat in a side alley and goes into business as Madame Magda. To supplement her income, she uses what she learned tending to Barnabas and goes about cleaning houses, eeking a living by both means.
Her fortunes change with the 1906 earthquake. Although the subsequent fires destroy the building in which she lives, she gains instant but quick fame when several of her clients state that she had predicted the earthquake and warned them about it. Her new popularity brings in more wealthy clients, allowing her to purchase a small house and dump the side-cleaning job. Yet, she remains cautious with her funds, living a more simple life.
During WWI, her services are even more needed, especially by the women of San Francisco's upper-crust, who are desperate to know about the welfare of their sons, brothers and even husbands fighting in Europe once the US enters the war in 1917.
In 1918, Madame Magda almost falls victim to the Influenza Epidemic, but survives.
She receives a "visitor" in 1922, none other than Quentin Collins. His appearance disturbs her, she insisting that she wants nothing to do with the Collins family. His visit setting off feelings of remorse over all that happened decades before, she "retires" (save for just a few priviledged clients) and becomes a virtual recluse. About the only place she is spotted is at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, where she remains in back, on her knees, during the long services, her head and face heavily veiled, in deep prayer.
In 1927, at the age of 75, Magda dies, mainly forgotten within the local community. Only a small handful of people attended her funeral, and she was interred in the Greco-Russian/Slavonic-Illyric section of the General Cemetery.
Gerard
