Thursday 22 Nov.
Dearest Mummy,
I don’t think I have a letter to thank you for as it’s not quite a week since I last wrote. However, I plan to sew industriously & make myself a dress so I thought I’d write before I got myself involved! I don’t know if I told you I ripped up that grey & yellow taffeta dress I had in my trousseau – anyway it had 4 yds. in the skirt so I am making a slim style out of it. I have been busy finishing off all the Christmas parcels & took them all to the P.O. & mailed them this morning ($4.60 for postage – groans!) & I am so thrilled with myself as I am a whole week before the deadline & usually I am tagging a few days behind! I have also ordered most of the children’s presents, so we are pretty well ahead & I am pleased! I got the things for my mincemeat last week but haven’t made it yet.
Cec had a cold over the weekend so we didn’t do much, but Linda & Charlie had quite recovered & they are fine now. On the Sunday the Ramsays dropped in to see us & had a cup of tea & in the evening Fanni & Teddy asked us to come around for a late dinner after the children were in bed. It was just lovely – Fanni gave us all sorts of intriguing Swiss dishes to eat & wine to drink – first tomatoes stuffed with cheese, celery etc.; then wiener shnizel (veal stuffed with cheese & egg & breadcrumbed & fried) & veg; then zabaliogne with wafers & then coffee & a nut torte! We were stuffed!
Yesterday I had such a surprise. The phone rang & it was Bob Spellar. Do you remember Grace & May Sutherland in Gosforth? Bob is Grace’s husband & it was they who introduced Dottie to her new husband & they live just nearby. Well, Bob is director of a firm in Birmingham & has been flying around the world for 2 1/2 mths & had just flown into Ottawa for a day, so I invited him & his manager who was with him, to dinner. I was so pleased to see him although as far as I can remember we had only met once or twice before, but he is an awfully nice man & it was such fun hearing first hand news of Dottie & her romance & everything. Incidentally he told me Dottie is preggy! Maybe it’s still a secret! We had a nice dinner & evening & all seemed to enjoy it. Bob thought Linda & Charlie were such a sweet good little children so he will take a good report to Dottie! It was the first person from the old N/C crowd that I had seen for 7 years, so it’s quite a time, isn’t it? He flies back to England next Tuesday – by the way their son is nearly 16 now & they have twin girls of 9.
I must get going & wash the breakfast & lunch dishes. Charlie & I took Lindy to school this morning & then went & got meat at Orleans & then took all the parcels to the mail etc. so the chores are still to be done. They are “resting” now- ha!ha!
Love to Auntie Muriel and lots of love for you from us all –
Cyn
xxxxx Linda xxxx Charlie
A Family History in Letters 