I haven’t written since my holiday in France (or have I), at any rate it’s been quite a while.
We had a lovely week at Cannes before I returned. You should get Al’s letter from Mrs. Bryce – he writes a book on all his trips! I came back to be best man for Bob Stewart Aug 28 – the Canadian who broke his leg & married his nurse. Then I moved to my present digs – I have a sitting room, larger than in college & a nice bedroom. My landlady gives me breakfast & Sunday lunch. She is very nice & we get along fine. She also has a little kitten which makes it seem more like home.
I’ve been going to Baldock the past month, catching an 8.25 train & returning about 7 PM. It’s a hard day but interesting & I don’t do anything, apart from going out, in the evenings, which makes a big difference. I’m on full navy pay for the month, at an Admiralty research station, which will help the finances.
I went up to London with the girlfriend on Saturday to see the show “Oklahoma”. It was grand, as you can gather from the record & also very funny in places. I wore my uniform for the first time in a year – it felt sort of good to “dress up” again.
I haven’t had any snaps printed yet, as I ran short of money. In fact, I had to ask Saskatoon to cable me some. I’ll be OK at the end of the month when I get my scholarship and navy pay.
I’ve asked Auntie to start sending parcels again, and would like Dad to send her $50 for that purpose. I think it’s the best way since she can get them sent by a firm. But if you are making up a parcel, butter, sugar, jam, lard, dried eggs, tinned meat are the most useful. Cereals etc. aren’t rationed here now.
Well, I must to bed, since I get a call at 7:30 (& another at 10 to 8 often) so goodbye for now.
Love
Cec
Of course, ‘the girlfriend’ had seen “Oklahoma” in New York in 1946, and had loved it, so I’m sure she enjoyed Saturday’s outing too!
Even before he met Cyn, it is clear that Cec was enjoying the Cambridge experience. He was involved in the Canada Club, he had broken his collar bone playing softball, he was working hard at his own research and was, as a Navy Reservist, combining his research with their projects. And he appreciated food parcels from North America just as much as the Ewings did!
I 13 New Court
Saint John’s Coll
March 1
Dear Folks,
Your parcel arrived yesterday, Mom, thanks a lot, I was beginning to run short of butter so it will be really handy.
Sorry to be so long writing, I have been too busy to do anything, but I don’t know what I’ve been doing. The Canada Club has been taking a lot of time, getting out notices etc. & trying to balance their books. We are having Lord Tweedsmuir down this Friday – John Buchan’s son – for a club dinner & open meeting afterwards. That finishes this term and I hope to get some work done. My research is going a lot slower than I counted on, but I am making some progress. What happened to Cy? I guess I’ll have to write Pete and Lu and get the low down. I sent Cy a Xmas Card but hadn’t heard from him. I hope they are all better.
Our spell of cold weather – we had one inch of snow for two days a couple of weeks ago – seems to be over. The lawns are covered with yellow & purple crocuses now, and the daffodils just beginning to bloom. It’s a nice country, but I could never live here. I feel I know them fairly well, but they are a strange people. I don’t know what it is, very egotistical but with a definite dry rot, or apathy. Too many wars, I guess. They have genius, yet they will put up with the most appalling conditions and inefficiency, and apparently not notice it. Far too much tradition for one thing.
Those chocolates are sure good, I’m eating them now. Did I tell you I won’t be home after all, the ship is leaving a month too soon, darn it. I could use the trip. I’ll probably join Al Bryce and some others on a bicycle tour of France. My shattered legs!
Cynthia Hazell Ewing met Cecil Clifford Costain on April 26th, 1948. Cec was a Canadian student at St. John’s College, Cambridge, on an 1851 scholarship for Commonwealth students, working on his PhD. in Physics with Dr. Gordon Sutherland. He wrote fewer letters than Cyn although he had traveled a lot more, on the aircraft carrier he served on during the war. [Those letters have already been published- tagged World War 2.]
Lieutenant-Commander Costain went back to Saskatoon after the war and got his MSc. at the University of Saskatchewan. He won the 1851 Exhibition Scholarship which enabled him to go to Cambridge, and once again he wrote letters home to the ‘folks’. And their lives converged.
The circumstances of the meeting made a good story. Cyn and her mother were sharing a flat at 37 de Freville Avenue in Cambridge, presumably having moved in together with whatever goods and chattels Carol had got from the Newcastle house, and they decided to have a house-warming party. A friend had agreed to try to bring some extra men along (I seem to remember she had a husband or boyfriend who was a post grad student and could find lonely PhD candidates) because Cynthia had lived with other women teachers in Warkworth House, worked in an all-girls school, and although she certainly seemed to entertain, she and her friends were interested in new blood. The teachers were not allowed to receive personal telephone calls at work, but Cyn needed to know how many people to cater for, so she arranged with her friend to ring her at school and sound as if it was a business call.
At break, the call duly came, and the friend told her in a professional tone, “I’ve managed to get you those magazines you were interested in, and I’ll bring them around to your house. Er, there are two Australian ones and a Canadian magazine.”
“Thank you,” said Cynthia, “I’ll look forward to reading them.”
At the party, the guests were introduced as ‘the Canadian magazine, Cec Costain etc.’ and so were in on the joke, and by the summer vacation, Cec was writing Cyn postcards from his all-male bicycle trip in France, saying, “Full moon tonight. What a waste” which rather implies they had moved fast and had an understanding already. They were married the following July, and three years later, pregnant with me, celebrated the anniversary of the party with ‘a little drink and a nice big reminisce before dinner tonight’ as she told her mother. [Letter dated April 22nd 1951]
This letter contains one of those mysteries where both the sender and recipient know what has happened so there is no need to discuss it, and we can only guess.
37 De Freville Ave.
Cambridge
Sunday
Dearest Little Mummy,
Thank you for your telegram & letter. I was so disappointed that you couldn’t come on Friday after all, but I quite understand that of course it was much more sensible to stay up there once you are there, rather than make another journey.
You have been having a horrible and wildly busy time – I am only sorry that I couldn’t be with you to help you, but I knew that all your friends would be sweet & kind, & I hope that Uncle John and Mary were of some help. I suppose they went back on Thursday as planned though, so you will have had all these days to get through without them, but I hope that the worst business was over by then, & that Maud and Chris would help you.
As I will be seeing you so soon, I won’t write anything about all the arrangements and what you have had to do, as we will be able to talk at all over when you get back. But I know you were having a wretched worrying time, dear, and I do hope you will try not to worry too much, because you have done all that could be done, over many years, and I think that it will all turn out for the best eventually.
I had a note from Joe on Friday saying he was coming & he arrived yesterday evening. At the moment he is very busy in the conservatory & has done all sorts of things- mended one broken shelf- lifted some others to make them straight- screwed up a loose bracket & it looks to me now as if he were going to mend the door! However, you better not tell Winnie all this, as apparently you mentioned the fact of his doing odd jobs before, & she must’ve been remarking on it to him! Probably, you better not tell her he’s here at all! By the way, it is Winnie’s birthday on Tuesday & I am sending a card.
Last night Joan had a little party, with two Poles, a fat girl Anne, Pam & George, & Joe & me. We all got quite matey & though Joe didn’t want to go, I think he really enjoyed it once he was there. Anne Chapman came in this morning (brought me 6 eggs & Joe brought 8- come home quick & help eat them!!!!) & Pam invited us all up for coffee at 12.0, so we had another little gathering. After all this we were not a bit hungrey, so we skipped lunch & are having a light tea & dinner this evening! I don’t know how Joe’s digestion will stand it- mine feels most odd!!
I must stop now, honey & catch the post. Take care of yourself now, & come home safe and sound on Wednesday. Pam and Joan & the butcher & the cats all keep asking when you’re coming & you’ll get a very warm welcome from all of them as well as from your loving daughter! We will be able to have a lovely lazy time during the holidays after Friday.
Joe sends his love, & I send lots & lots from me-
from
Cyn P.T.O.
Love to Mrs. Johnny & Bella & Maud & Winnie & all the others.
Clues: It is later in the year of 1948 or even possibly 1949, because Cyn’s address is that of the flat she shared with her mother, so it would be at least spring of 1948, because they are obviously living there together. However, something has happened in Newcastle, because that is where Carol is, dealing with something upsetting. I assume this was the catastrophic medical incident that resulted in the husband she had left, Gordon, being hospitalized- but I don’t know what that was. I think that the ‘Uncle John and Mary’ mentioned were Ewings, probably Gordon’s older brother, and Maud and Winnie were friends of long-standing. The ‘Joe’ visiting Cyn in Cambridge is a Sheedy, also longtime Newcastle neighbours of the Ewings, possibly a younger brother of her childhood friends, and obviously handy to have around the house! From the list of things he’s fixing, it sounds as if they haven’t lived there very long. Maybe when Carol gets back, she and Cyn will be planning a house-warming party…
While Christmas 1947 approaches, I thought we could look at the very organized records Cyn kept of her purchases and gifts, which her letters from America showed were very important to her. I think some of the things listed above that Cyn brought for her friends from the States in August 1947 were scarcities in England such as the stockings, and had been arranged and paid for by the recipients, but she seems to have brought something for everyone mentioned in her letters, so perhaps not.
In her previous letter of December 6th, she is already telling her mother about her Christmas shopping. She listed (in an outdated diary from her father’s medical days, judging from the ads for tablets on every page) all Christmas cards sent and received, and all the presents she gave and received, from 1932 until 1965 when the book was full! This December, besides the cards and gifts exchanged with her family and friends in England, she sent cards to all her American friends, and presents to her relatives and closer friends there, mostly calendars for the adults and books for the children- things easy to post. And as my last post showed with the close-up of her Presents Received page, (repeated here, 2nd page) they responded with generosity! But her father does not feature in the lists this year, or any year after.
This letter may have been written on December 6th or 13th in 1947- one of those Saturdays!
19 Warkworth St.
Cambridge.
Saturday
Dearest Mummy,
Thank you so much for both your letters. I was awfully sorry to see in the one I got this morning though, that you were worrying and unhappy about the arrangements you have made, because I think you have done marvellously, and as for blaming you, that is just ridiculous. You say something about selling my birthright for a mess of potage, but really you haven’t done anything of the sort – my father would never have left me anything more, and he has been generous over money matters with me already, so I am more than content about my affairs – it is only you that I worry about, and not so much about financial things, because I am sure we will manage all right – but because you have had to leave your home, and begin anew as it were. However, I think that once it is all over, you will be much happier and freer, and that things will work out very nicely.
I think that you were very wise and clever when you went to Mr. Kirby to sign the deeds etc., and as for being cowardly, I think you were very brave to stand up for yourself as you did. I am certain that it is for the best all round to arrange things peaceably in this way, because even if we went to Court, & went thro’ all the rowing and trouble it would mean to get you a little allowance, we probably would have had more trouble with him about paying it regularly, & it would have gone on & on. When I wrote to you, saying to try & get an allowance & we’d go to Court if necessary, I didn’t think that there was any chance of settling the affair quietly, and your getting a share of the household goods, but as it has turned out this way, I think it is a very good thing. I think you were quite right to tell Mr. Kirby about not getting the allowance etc. & I’m sure he understands how things are, and I also think signing the paper about not claiming anything from him on condition he left you the house in his will, was a very good idea, because, goodness knows, you never would have got anything from him, and now he has to do as you say about the will (which I’m sure he wouldn’t have done otherwise,) so it is really a safeguard for you.
I think that on the whole the sharing of the furniture etc. is not bad, although of course, it’s nothing like half, but I was tickled to bits about the big bookcase & Uncle Nic’s rug! In my last letter I mentioned a bookcase & a carpet if possible, & I thought of Uncle Nic’s rug, but I never thought he’d let it go!
Uncle Nic’s Letter, about sending the carpet from India in 1926?, to Carol. A late wedding present? I don’t think the envelope it was preserved in was the original, since it was mailed in England. A bit tattered around the edges, but still surviving in my living room in 2020!
And as for the big bookcase & the bureau – my my!! I am glad you are getting a fair share of the china & silver & glass etc. and as you say, it doesn’t matter about the other silver teapot etc. now that you have the nice one Aunt Muriel sent. By the way, I sent off the little electric iron to you today, & I put it in two big boxes (that my china was in) with masses & masses of packing, & thought they might be useful to you for packing your glass or china in. I am enclosing the latch key in this letter, & I don’t think there is anything else I have that belongs to 95.
I am so sorry that your tummy got worse, and that you are feeling so poorly on top of everything else, dear. I do hope that it is much better now, and if it isn’t, don’t you go on trying to do things, just take a rest, and get better first. There is no need for you to rush and dash about when you’re not well, and so just take things easily. I am sure that Maude will have you to stay for a little while when you are packed up, so that you can make final arrangements with the Bank etc. and onething – don’t worry about the decisions you’ve made. I think that you have done absolutely right in everything, and I fully agree with you, and back you up in everything you’ve done. You haven’t the slightest reason to reproach yourself over anything, so don’t you go being miserable! Cheer up, & think of all the fun we’ll have when it’s all over! And take care of yourself, my sweet, & get that tummy better. I hope the weather has improved for you, because miserable cold & wet won’t do you much good.
Last night I went to the pictures to see the Technicolour film of the Royal Wedding – I thought it was nice as a film, but disappointing of the actual wedding, as you don’t see so much of it as I thought you would. Pam, Jessie & I are convinced you can see me on it!! A minute speck of red, which is my scarf! Today, I have been Christmas shopping and golly! – the prices! I got Ruth Stainthorpe Angora gloves & Irene & Bill a little tray & Peter baby roller skates. I thought about slippers for you (warm ones), but thought I’d ask you to make sure you needed them. How’s about it?
When I got back there was a lovely parcel from Ruth Schatz waiting for me for Christmas. Of course I opened it and it has a lot of little tins & packages of food, & also a pair of nylons, & the sweetest pink earrings & brooch, made of darling little shells. That reminds me – don’t forget my sea urchins and shells!!! One other thing I thought of- not important really, but I’d like it, & that is the “Holiday” mag about London & also the old McCall’s. If you leave them at Maud’s I’d get them later. Must go now as I am playing bridge at Joan & Ray’s. Hope you are feeling much better honey, & take care of yourself.
Lots of love from
Cyn.
Closeup of Cyn’s record of 1947 Christmas presents received from overseas: so many food parcels!The letters of the 1st, 4th, and this one were all stored in this envelope, postmarked Dec 2nd.
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.
Thank you so much for your letter which I got this morning, and for enclosing Miss Lefroy’s. I am so glad that she wrote you such a sweet letter, and will give you such a welcome, because this bed sitting room I am in, wouldn’t be at all nice for you to come to, and now you will be able to stay there while we make some plans and get organized. I am sure that she and Chris will be very glad to have you and you will be able to help them too, so you won’t feel that you are not doing your share.
I am glad that you have had a talk with my Father without his getting in a rage again, and although I am sorry he will not give in about an allowance, I think too that it is better to settle things peacefully than to have a great row in Court about it. We will manage all right without anything from him, and it will make a lot of difference if you can get all your things and a fair share without any unpleasantness. I was wondering if you could settle with him about what furniture, china, silver, linen etc. you were to have, & then if you could go to Bevans or Bainbridges or one of these & ask about whether they would store them. If they would, you could perhaps ask them if they had packing cases for books etc. & if so, they could take all my books & the other things and store them. Then I thought if you could get all your clothes & all the personal things belonging to both of us together, I could either get the L.N.E.R. to send my trunks to you by passenger train; or if you could take the things to Maud’s, I could go up during the Christmas holidays & take the trunks with me, & pack up what you had left over.
I think if you could arrange about storing things in N/C and get that done, it would be a beginning, & would make less for you to worry about than if you took all the stuff to Miss Lefroy’s, and we could leave it there, till we got some place to live. I think it is important for you to see that you have all our Saving Certs & papers about our shares etc. and also before you leave to write to the P.O. about re-directing our letters. I know this seems like looking forward a lot, honey, but now that you have decided to leave, I think you had better get it over and done with. Christmas is not so far off, and I think it would be best if you plan to leave before then if you can. Perhaps Maud would go with you to see about storing the furniture etc. and once you’ve got that arranged, the rest won’t be so bad. I don’t know if you would like me to come up before you leave. I hesitated to ask, because I have a feeling that my presence will only enrage my Father more, but if you would like me to come, I will do so, either for a weekend now, or at the beginning of my holiday.
I did not go to London this weekend- it was last weekend I went, & friend Roland bored me to tears! This weekend I rushed around & got my Xmas things off to America – I sent silk squares with hunting scenes on- one grey, one blue, to Til & Lois – books to Ruth’s children, & a calendar to her & Ernie (I had a letter from Ruth that she has sent me a parcel by the way), I sent a calendar to Mr. & Mrs. Atkinson, & one to C’Zelma, Em & Grandma. I sent books to Hugh, Monie & Allan- & what do you think to the girls- traycloths! So A. Ettie & they will not be jealous of each other! I must write to U. Artie & send him a card, & I am sending a calendar to A. Muriel. At long last I got written to A. Trix, & sent her & Bill & Jane cards.
I was very upset to hear the news about Irene. I had such a cute letter from her last week, telling me all about it, & in such high spirits, & I felt so glad, as I thought she and Bill would make sweet parents. I do hope that it isn’t so serious as it sounds, and that after the baby has dropped or whatever it is, that she will be better. I have just written her a great immense letter, & one to Dottie too, as I am in disgrace again for missing Peter’s birthday once more. I told her vaguely that you were leaving, but said I would be up sometime during my Xmas holidays to see them.
It is after 10 o’clock now, so I better stop & see you to my bottle & Bovril & bed. I am in the midst of Xmas cakes at school – about 100 of the wretched things! I am making one for us,– & by the way, when you leave don’t forget & leave all of the tins of food behind! I sent them to you not him!
Let me know how things are going, & don’t worry too much. If you want me to, I’ll come up –
I am awfully sorry to hear about all the trouble you are having, and I know how miserable you must be feeling. A peaceful life with my father seems to be able to last just so long, and then he gets a devil in him and won’t stop till he’s had a great row, and said all the cruellest things he can think of. No matter what you do, or how patient or forbearing you are, it always happens. I am sorrier then I can say that it has happened again though, just as you thought the dog was making him a bit better, and as you say, after all these years, it is too much to go on being insulted and browbeaten by him.
Of course, as he well knows, money is the problem if you leave him. It is one thing having the house as we had before, and another thing have to pay rent as we would now, especially with prices as they are now. One thing I think you definitely should do, and that is, if you are leaving him, get some proper written agreement stating the allowance he will give you, or if he won’t do that go to Court & get a Court order for an allowance, because it is only right that he should give you one. Also, you know what his verbal promises are- last time he sent the allowance for a few months & that was all. In view of the allowance business, I am doubtful about the wisdom of going without having legal advice or something first, because once you have left the house, I don’t know whether the position would be the same. Another thing, if you are going all of our things should be out of the house first, or he possibly would never let us have them.
About where you could go, Mummy, I wish I had a place here you could come to, but this isn’t much of a home for you. If you went to Miss Lefroy for a while, we might be able to find a flat eventually, & you could come to Cambridge, but honestly, honey, I don’t see much prospect of there being any kind of a job you could get here – that is why I think it is so important for you to get an allowance. Of course Miss Lefroy may be able to find you something to do in London, but it would be much more sensible and nicer if we could make a home together.
However, see how things are going dear, and if you feel that it is really the end then go and get some legal advice about how you stand before you do anything, because if you left, and he became vindictive, as he can, you don’t know how mean he would be.
There doesn’t seem to be any more I can say, Mummy, except again how sorry I am that you are having this sad worrying time. Let me know how things are going, and of course you know I am thinking about you. In your last letter you wrote about the Felton idea, & in someways I thought it was rather a good one, as life in the country would be pleasanter in some ways for you both, I thought, but now there’s not much point in talking about it.
Anyway try not to be too worried about it all – we’ll get on all right, no matter what happens –
Cyn’s great friend from college, Dottie, may have had the same training in High Class Cookery as she did, but Dottie’s path during the war was very different. She had married towards the beginning of the war, and her husband George Burton was an officer who died in 1944, leaving Dottie with one son. Later she married Ken Wilyman and lived a long and happy life in Sutton Coldfield, bringing up 4 boys, and dying in her 100th year. She was my godmother, and encouraged me in this project. When I sent her my commentary on my grandfather Gordon Ewing* (whom she loathed, she said), she returned it as a letter that gave her opinion of him and summed up Cyn’s life until she left for Canada. I include it because it gives a different perspective- not only from a friend, but also from the distance of 50 or 60 years later.
Dear Linda – I hope this passes as a letter.
…
When Cyn first lived in Walkerville & lived next door to the Sheedys & opposite to Nan & Mrs. Allan she also knew my George & Neville? who was our best man. (Both George and Neville died in the war.) They all played badminton at a local club – also one Roly Cassidy who was a friend of George’s & George & I got them together for dances- he was very keen but Cyn wasn’t too impressed! Next one of George’s architect friends who came from a rather grand family in Co. Durham. Dr. Ewing was impressed (he was a snob!)
Cyn was a great pal to me when I had a baby & lost my husband in 1944. I was always encouraging Cyn to leave home. Incidentally they lived near me when we were at college & only returned to Walkerville when he (the Doc) retired.
Once Cyn left home she really began to live her own life- during the war she met Hugh (then a major in the U.S. Army but billeted in this country. He was a stunner! (but married.) I met him when he was with Cyn and believe me- they really did make a good couple & she must’ve been very upset when the war ended & he went back home.
It was super when Cec came on the scene at the end of the war. By then Carol was with Cyn in Cambridge & everything went well. Old man in the local asylum & Cyn did visit him. I remember she made a special visit to him before she set off for Canada. Bless her she was a lot more forgiving than I would have been.
Love D.
…
* see earlier post, ‘Dr. J.M.G. Ewing, my grandfather.’
A Family History in Letters 