Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Love Letter from Home

 My sister was born in Bladen, Nebraska on March 25.  Mother's mother came up from Colorado to help.  Her husband, Sam, clearly missed his Darling, for not only did he expend the effort to write, but he had to affix a three-cent stamp to the envelope, and that was a big deal.    The letter is written in pencil on both sides of two sheets of 6 x 8 notepaper.

                 Hartman
                               april
Dear wife
Will right you
to night a few lines and
put in the childerens letters
I received your letter yestedy
was to hear that you was
feeling all right and that
Vera and the baby was
getting a long all right
I am feeling purty good
hav bin working purty
hard. it keeps me moving
around keeping house
and working to. but
you nedent whury a bout
me I am getting a long
fine. I get up of a morning
build a far and whill
the stove gets hot
________________
I milk then I get
breakfast. then when
I come from work
I make a far then I go to
milk take the milk
to flicorts then get
super. then wors the
dishes sometimes ho
ho. Well I love the this
lonin with al of my hart
I saw Bro Stewart this
afir non he had bin
to holley and rented
a bilding to hold a revivel
Just dident know when
he would Start till he
heard from brother
Elkins. sed that he would let me know.
So you fokes must pray much for this
meeting.
____________________
I was talking to Bro
Elkins mondy night
he sed that fellsburg
was at the praings
seeking. the manuell
felesburg he sed that
ted drown had him
seeking. and Paul
Idles sed that Mae
had clear lost out
and wasent triying
to get saved. all
of his church came
back to the pilgrems
well ges that I will
close for this time as
it is getting late
ocens of Love Dearis
the one that loves you ever
S H Morrell

I prepared the above post, then thought to get counsel as to whether I should post it so I wrote to my sister:
Dear Sister,
I thought to post this on STSTT, but then thought perhaps I should run it past you first. To post, or not to post, that is the question.
David

Here is her reply:

 David:
Probably typical writing for a southern man who did not have a lot of schooling. It's hard to believe that this letter is still around after all of these years - almost 76! (Interesting since Grandma wrote very well.) We have to be really proud of a grandpa who, with very little "book learning," supported a large family during hard times. His children's successes testify to his devotion as a husband/father/Christian gentleman. His continued closeness to extended family, even when he lived far from them, provided an example of loving and caring. I doubt that selfishness was even a part of his life. Great example to follow!
Funny that the signature on a letter to his wife is, "S H Morrell." But I do know someone who is younger than us who refers to his wife as "Mrs. Blake" when he writes about her on Facebook. Weird - in my humble opinion.
I remember sitting on Grandpa's lap when we visited them in Hartman before they moved to California. I could not have been very old. He was the first person who ever let me have a sip of coffee. Maybe what got me hooked!
I was not aware that Grandma came to Bladen to help when I was born. I have always been under the impression that Mrs. Anderson was the one who helped Mom and cared for you. Shows what I know!
Love,
Verla

7 comments:

Shelly said...

That letter is a priceless treasure!

Jim said...

How nice to have something like that! All my family has is a box of unlabeled photographs.

Anonymous said...

I love the part about washing the dishes...(ho...ho..)

The Cranky said...

What a beautiful testament to love and the willingness to work hard; I'm so glad you shared it.

It reminds me of my father, who had to quit working when he was in the ninth grade in order to help support his mother and siblings. The hard work, love of family, and obvious intelligence and humour were more than enough...at least at that time...to offset a lack of education. We need more good and decent men and women of that calibre.

vanilla said...

Shelly, I am blessed to be in possession of a few mementos as reminders of my heritage.

Jim, if you've any way at all to identify the people in the pictures you should label them. Fortunately for me, my mother had written on the backs of the pix in the shoe box!

Grace, Grandpa was possessed of a sense of humor, and he was not above chuckling at his own wit on occasion.

Jacqueline, thank you. And I appreciate that you shared the tribute to your father. Your last sentence so exactly expresses one of our greatest needs.



Sharkbytes said...

What a wonderful letter! We think we aren't productive if we don't do a hundred tasks. He milked the cows and took care of the house.

vanilla said...

Shark, and went to work in between. He was a good man.