Nov 20 - 1945
Somervell St.
Annerley Brisbane
My Dear Nephew.
I hope you get this letter in time for Christmas. I have sent a letter & two papers & a map of Australia & some views since I got your last letter. You said you had not got the first map I sent you so I asked all my friends if they had one at last my granddaughter found one. She was cutting out a pattern of a collar on the wrong side of the map & when she saw it was the map she stuck it together again & gave it to me to send to you. I requested it & the newspapers & the views. I thought you would have a better chance of getting them. I am sending some Christmas cards with this today hoping you will get them one is a picture of a kangaroo it is one of our native animals & the other of the Koala Bear it is the largest of the bear family in Australia (Native Bear) & the other picture is called the laughing jackass it laughs all day long & I did not know your son’s name or your wife’s name so I just sent them to you. I may send you a card for New Year if I can get one Christmas cards have been very scarce during the war.
I hope all your nephews come home from the war well & happy, their parents must have had an anxious time while they were away. I guess you have heard that my only son went to the last war and was killed. I think I told you in one of my letters that 2 of my daughters died 4 months after my son was killed & I have only 3 girls left they are very good to me. Lottie left a little girl & I reared her & she is married & had 2 children a girl & boy. Lottie’s daughter married a school teacher & is comfortably off & our Nellie’s son got married a fortnight ago he is a boilermaker in the railway workshop at Ipswich. Nellie’s husband is a carpenter in the railway & they are very comfortable too. They have no other children. My daughter Edith works at the General Post Office Brisbane & Dorothy is a dressmaker & works at home. My granddaughter Joyce used to write to one of your Nellie’s girls her name was Winifred. I guess she is married now. Give my love to your wife & family & the next time you write tell me their names. I would just love to see them all. I have got a snapshot of 43 of you taken at a picnic after your father died. Your mother was nursing her youngest grandchild & you were in the photo too.
Well dear Ben, I hope you are all well give my love to them all. I have not been able to go to church for some years now but the sisters come to see me when they can they & everybody have been very busy during the war & we are all glad it is over but there is still a lot of trouble in the world. I hope & pray the Lord will see fit to make it a peaceful world for everybody. We are all well. I have not much wrong with me only I cannot do much work my hands are shaky & cannot walk far but I am quite happy & I have no worries at all.
So good bye Ben & I pray God will Bless you & all your folks. & Write to me soon.
