15 August 1960

My dear Len & Margaret

Monday 4.45. The weather did not look too promising this A.M. but the day has turned out fine. Only it’s windy but dry & sunshine.

Many thanks for your very nice letter received this A.M. Margaret. Oh yes we had a card from Susan when they went to Blackpool. They seemed to be having a very nice time & no doubt their holiday will have done them good. Well Margaret as you say you miss the children, it’s only natural isn’t it? You don’t say when they will be back, but guess that will be soon.

Fancy little Roselle going to school next month. Will it be at the same school as Susan? I guess it is, she will be able to take care of her, because she is too young to go on her own. I quite believe she will like going to school.

Oh before I go further Margaret & also before I forget I must say how very sorry I feel about not having mentioned the surprise we were to have when we went to Doreen some time back. I really can’t make out how it slipped my memory. Well one was a new lino fixed in their kitchen, which was very pretty, but it’s not a good one, because they are hoping to move in about a years time & go & live in Great Union Rd. Nick has a house of his own there, but it was let on a lease & of course he could not have the people out when they married. They are hoping to get them out in about a years time. That is the reason they had a cheap lino, which will do for the time they are there, but it’s very nice. That’s one surprise. The other one was tea cups, saucers & plates. I had admired these in Voisins window, so had Doreen. They are not china, they are kitchen ware. I like them very much. Doreen knew I would envy them. I am very sorry, sorry I forgot to mention it, but you know having these letters to write one after the other & repeating the same things so many times it’s not surprising that I forget sometimes. But I am pleased you reminded about it.

Oh about our Wedding Anniversary, it was very nice of you to send a telegram of congratulations. We appreciated your kindness very much. I think Roselle told you all about what was going to happen. In fact you knew before we did, we did not know there was anything on foot for us. It was a great surprise. First thing when I came downstairs in the morning I generally go in the kitchen to drink a cup of water before breakfast. I did the same thing on that special day, it did not occur to us that it was a special day.

After drinking a cup of water I went in the dining room to get breakfast ready. When I got in I noticed a rather biggish parcel on Dad’s plate. I thought it so strange, naturally like all inquisitive women I made straight to see what it could be. I told Roselle who was sitting at the table having a cup of tea before going to work, what is the meaning of all this, she answered “well if you looked in your own plate before looking in other peoples plate, you would do better”. I quickly turned my eyes towards my plate, there was a little parcel & a card of congratulations. I said “Oh Rose why all this”, we had not even giving it a thought. Well she said, this is not all, you are to be taken out this eve. & you will have to dress properly. I asked where are we going? Never mind, Kay & Arthur will take you, all the family will be together.
Well we did not know where we were going to be taken until we got to the place, the ‘Cafe de la Paix’, which is a new portion of the Grand Hotel. This was a lovely treat from the family & such a surprise. We had a very nice meal & spent a lovely eve. Left there at 11 ‘o clock. It was a bad, wet  & windy eve.

Oh I must not forget to say what was the contents of the parcels. I know Margaret will want to know & no doubt Len. Well, Dad had a bottle of Cognac, I had a pair of earrings in mixed colours. They are very nice, I wore them that evening. They matched my necklace which is mauve & white, a two string one. I also love the big mauve broach which has a lily. Do you remember sending me that one? I am very fond of it & wear it quite a lot when I dress up.

I wore a dress I have had for many years, black foundation & floral of two shades of mauve. On that I wore a white knitted cape, one I had from Canada a few years back. I also had taken quite a lot of care with my hair which looked very well, with lovely waves. In fact some of the men folks asked me where I had had my hair waved. I told them I had given it a good brushing in the rain & wind. They all told me how well I looked. In fact everybody looked well, 9 in number. It would have been nice to have you with us, we had not expected this to happen.

I am sure the clematis growing on the wall must be lovely with beautiful blooms. These creepers are lovely when they do well. Margaret says that Sheila is coming over for her holidays. I wonder if we will come across her. It would be nice to see her again.

Fancy Elisabeth(Stockport cousin) already going to work. Children do grow fast these days. Before you know it Susan too will be working. How good of (Stockport Uncle) John to buy the children a croquet set, this so good exercise for them in the open air.

Yes Margaret I’ve seen these so called red lobelias but in fact I call them purpley red, they are very nice though. Do you do any gardening Len? This would be good exercise for you. Has your weight gone down, are you still trying to diet? If you are, be careful what you do, sometimes dieting can do a lot of harm, if done without a doctors orders.

We notice that your son John is turning out to be a good cook. When he has a little more experience in cooking he will have to come over & give Aunt Roselle lessons in cooking. She too is a good cook.

Here I am again but it’s getting late, it’s now gone 8 ‘o clock. Dad & I are just back from the hospital to see Aunt Marie. There was over a fortnight we had not been. Well we have both found a great change in her. She hardly speaks, we hardly spoke to her. It seems it’s an effort for her to answer, then she only tells you yes or no, it’s sad to see her. They have to feed her. Her left hand is swollen. I don’t know the reason for this. We had a bit of a shock when we saw her. Really speaking it would be a blessing if she was taken, for herself & for everyone around her.

Margaret, your new dress you mention certainly sounds very nice. You have a good taste for dress. You seem to know what suits you. I notice you also bought a mac. Well you will need one for winter, you can hardly go out without a mac in winter time. Have you worn your new dress yet?

You say that the boys still have their English accent, well I guess this is rather hard to drop. Because when you went to Scotland, the boys were already grown up Englishafied. Now Roselle is different, she was quite young, did she speak when she went to Scotland? Even if she did she was young enough to pick up the Scottish accent. You say Susan speaks both, that’s very nice.

Kay took us out this afternoon, we had not been for our weekly drive for two weeks. We went to Green Island. Kay had trouble to park her car there, it was full up. I had never seen so many cars there before, anyway one car did get away & Kay parked in his place.
Today Dad & I got out of the car & sat on a seat facing the sea. It was nice & sunny there with a light breeze. Roselle was there too, she went there earlier than we did, because she had Barbara Harquoil, Terry & John with her. We met them all there. They have gone to Kay this evening. Roselle with them. They are enjoying their visit here tremendously. They were here on Friday evening. That was the day they arrived, came on Sunday to tea. Roselle was out with them at Gorey, they also came last evening.

Tomorrow the family is going to spend the evening at Margaret’s, it’s her birthday. Not ‘Barbara’, just the du Feu family.

We are again having the horrible smell again this evening. Are you busy at the office Len? I guess things are still quiet.
Please thank Susan for her nice P.C.

Just a little item I am forgetting to say is that Roselle did not manage to book her passage for a day trip to St. Malo. The planes were fully booked. She was very disappointed. She was hoping for Friday but she has no promise. She would have had a nice day to day. She doesn’t want to go by boat, neither go on a Sunday if she can do otherwise. She goes back to work on Monday. Up to now she is able to go to the seaside, I hope it’s going to continue fine all week. I think this must be all. We hope you are all well.
Love from all,
lovingly mother xxx