April 23, 1943

Charlottesville, VA, USA

Dearest Hal,

This is Good Friday, and I have not gotten my weekly letter off to you. Elizabeth came up Sunday and stayed till Wednesday. I surely enjoyed seeing her.

Sara planned to come over Tuesday and spend one night but Bits and Pauline came to Staunton Monday night and came with her over here Tuesday afternoon and evening visiting hours then went back to Staunton. Bits went to the draft board and they gave him his call for May 7^th. Pauline wanted to get some of her things she left with Sara. They spent the day getting through there and went back Thursday to North Carolina. He said he would be back week after next. I don’t know what Pauline will do. She talks of staying there and carrying on that work.

I hear too little from you these days. I guess you don’t have much time to write. I hear from Billy nearly every week but he said in his letter April 9^th that he had just gotten one from me, the first in over a month. Two girls here who have husbands in Africa say the same thing-but of course there is plenty of reason for that. Bill says when you get this far from home you really appreciate the value of a letter. He was telling about a wreck he saw on his way back to his post, in which some Arabs ran into a post and killed several and crippled some, how he sent the driver for an ambulance and he gave artificial respiration to one and brought five around and helped them for 2 hours ‘till help arrived. Do you hear from Billy at all? It is still so cold and back here and the fruit crop was cut short by several freezes. Perhaps it will be warmer after Easter.

Much love to you, my son -Mother