19 Warkworth St.
Cambridge.
4th Dec. 1947.
Dearest Mummy,
I was so pleased to get your letter on Tuesday, and to know that you were feeling a bit more cheerful, and that got things so well organized with Maud. I am so glad that she has been able to help you, and will keep the things for you- it will save so much trouble & the cost of storing and everything, & is very good of her. I thoroughly agree with you to take everything you can, because you are surely entitled to it, and if we can get a home together sometime, every little bit of furniture and stuff will be a terrific help, and we will need every single thing we can get! Besides the things you mentioned he would let you have, I wonder if he wouldn’t let you have one carpet or rug? The one in your bedroom he always hated, so maybe he wouldn’t mind – & it would be a great help if he would let us have even a small bookcase. But it asking for these things is going to mean another row, don’t bother – just take what he offers! However, I have thought, the linen curtains (green) are ours really- I made them at College – & also I have the little electric iron here & the one you have is really mine, and is better isn’t it? Let me know, & I could pack the little one & send it, & you could bring mine down with you. I think you might claim quite a few of the cooking things – the pyrex dishes & some of the cake tins & patty tins & things would be useful to us & he will never need – also my big cook’s knife & palette knife etc. When you are collecting the vases & things, you won’t forget the little plant pot Dottie gave me, will you? And there are also one or two pictures of mine – even the watercolour of Barbados Miss Thompson gave me for my 21st, but I’m not fussy about that! I think you should take as much of the china etc. that you can too, because if we had a home, my American set wouldn’t really go far, & knives & forks etc. we could do with too. About the food – I suggest you take to Miss Lefroy anything you think she’d like particularly & leave the rest in a box at Maud’s. I think I will definitely go to N/C during my Xmas holiday – after spending Christmas with you at Miss Lefroy’s – & I will take my footlocker or trunk with me & bring down the food & whatever else I want. I would like to see the girls, & it will save you bothering about taking my stuff with you, & also I have three weeks holiday & might as well do that as anything. I am sure Dottie or someone will put me up.
I can’t really think of anything else particularly that you haven’t mentioned – decanters; gramophone and records; books; clothes; tennis & badminton rackets; pictures- snapshots etc.; I can’t really think of very much else. Of course, there is a box under my bed with all my odds & ends, but I know you would see that when you are clearing out the room – oh, & by the way, the box ottoman made in my College days is mine too – such a valuable piece of furniture! But that seems to be about all. If you put all my old papers & letters etc. into something & send them to Maud’s, I’ll go through them & burn them when I go up there.
I have felt much happier about you since I got your letter, and I am so pleased & relieved, dear, that you’re feeling better about it all, & that my Father is being agreeable. I hope that your chill has passed off & that it hasn’t gotten worse, or that you haven’t caught a cold or anything. I agree with Maud that essentially this will probably turn out to be a good thing, but at the moment, all the upheaval and upset of it is very hard for you. When I see you at Christmas we can discuss plans for the future, & probably after you have been with Miss Lefroy for a little while you will be able to decide more easily how long you feel you should stay with her etc.
It is getting late now, so I will stop- I went with Jessie to the pictures tonight – to a Swiss film “The Last Chance” & wept till the tears dripped off my chin! I wonder what Mrs. Johnny & Bella & Winnie & Amy will all say when they hear of you going – they were all miss you terribly I know.
Don’t forget to send an SOS if you want me to send my trunk & the iron – I can send lots of boxes too. With lots and lots of love
from Cyn P.T.O.
I am up to my eyes making Christmas cakes – am making one for us & will bring to Miss Lefroy’s. Do they like wine for Christmas? I could maybe get them a bottle & take it as a present.
Cyn
A Family History in Letters 