July 27th 1954

27th July. 1954

Dearest Mummy,
Thank you so much for your long letter & good wishes for our 5th wedding anniversary – as you say, such a lot has happened in those years & although it hasn’t all been fun I still feel just about the luckiest person in the world. I do enjoy being a wife & mother!

I didn’t write last week as I have been busy with my visitor – Mom Costain. She arrived last Tues. evening (a week ago) & although we haven’t done much, I still seem to have been quite busy. Lea & Darryl came out on Thurs. afternoon & stayed for dinner, then on Friday I had the car & we went to town & took the children & went to the Market & for groceries etc. On Sat. afternoon we were invited to the Blachut’s to tea- we were very interested to see their house as it is modern without being extreme, & we liked it very much. They brought their furniture from Switzerland & it is lovely- beautiful polished wood. They have a wonderful big wooded lot & we went out & sat under the trees & had cold drinks when we arrived. Then Mr. B. lit a wood fire between two big stones & toasted buns & hot dogs which was great fun – you should have seen Linda & Charlie wolfing them down!! Then it began to get dull & rainy looking so we went in the house & then tea & a wonderful cream cake appeared. We waddled home about 7, just stuffed! We had a long-standing date that evening to go to Pete & Lu’s to meet a couple from Montreal who were in Ottawa for a few days, Doug & Pat Watson. He was a Navy pal of Cec & Pete’s & was at the Univ. in Sask. with them after the war- they never liked him much apparently! Anyway he married this girl Pat during the war & it turns out that she once lived at the Sutherland’s in Cambridge when she was a student. Poor Lu was just going to have the 4 of us as their sitting room isn’t furnished yet & they use Pete’s study, but Pete’s sister Jessie arrived the night before for a few days & the Watsons brought his mother, so Lu’s mother who is staying with her but was just going to say ‘hello’ & then go to bed, had to stay & in the end there were 9 of us squashed in & kind of an awkward party. We were glad to see Jessie though – we met her 2 summers in Ann Arbour – remember?
On the Sunday we took Mom & the babies out to dinner- quite an experience! We went to the restaurant on the island in the river & gave Mom her 1st Chinese food & got a 1/2 order of roast chicken for the children & shared it between them! They loved it & just ate away & behaved very nicely – one anxious moment when Charlie took a mouthful of stuffing & didn’t like it & gagged, but all was well!!! It was the first time we’d taken them both out, but it was fun! We stayed at home for our anniversary as Mom was going to the Atchison’s for dinner, but we old married folk didn’t mind! I was glad to hear that A. Ettie is now going to have some money to enjoy- poor old Phine. Was sorry to hear about Peter resigning – a pity that U. Fred & he can’t get together & clean up the joint. Will write again soon. Kisses from your babies & lots of love from us all – Cyn.