May 12, 1944

My dearest Hal,

I am not a very good correspondent, am I? I am so very busy these days. It does not get dark until bedtime and I feel I must put in every minute I can planting and working this “victory garden” we’re raising. Daddy has his good days and bad ones. Today was a fairly good day. He planted butter beans. My favorite dish you know is butter beans so I take special pains with those.

We are at Dr. Thomas’ office again. This time we came after supper though we generally come in the afternoon, today we were too busy so had to put it off until night. I think Daddy gets rather discouraged over these weekly visits but I do hope that eventually they are going to help him a great deal.

I wish so much you could have been here last night. Sam made his first appearance in an entertainment. He sang in a chorus on a program for the P.T.A. The children sang hymns and it was really very good. Sam sang and I was surprised to death that he could carry the tunes he has always contended that he could not sing because his voice was “rough on one side.” I was quite pleased that he was one of those selected to sing, but really it is quite a strain to have your off spring perform in public for the first time, I felt that I needed your support in such an occasion. Sam was so excited I couldn’t get him to eat any supper, you would have thought he was the start of the whale show. Of course mother thought he did not have anything that would do to wear so she sewed for two days to make him a brand new outfit to do justice to the occasion.

I have tried my level best to decide whether I should mail you a box for your birthday. One letter says you may come and the next one says you may not, so it was hard to make up my mind what to do. It is very nearly impossible to think of anything to send that I can get and that you would receive in good condition. You are such an uncomplaining person. You don’t express very many wishes. I don’t have anything to fall back on in the way of suggestions from you. I know all too well what you want and I want the same thing but I’m afraid I don’t quite know how to accomplish that home-coming. I want you to come more than any thing in the world but neither one of us would be happy to think we had done less than our duty. I am enormously proud of the fine officer who is my husband, proud that he will have such a fine record to show his son and such a fine example for that son to live by.

Darling. I hope you will not be too disappointed when you come home. You see all the time you have been living in a manner of which I probably know next to nothing, I have been living the quietest life you can imagine. I simply want to settle down somewhere and build a home, plant a flower garden, and live a quiet life with my husband and son. That may seem rather prosaic to you but I guess I’ve had about all the upheaval I can stand. I don’t like my life so uncertain as this but I could stand almost anything if only you were here to share it.

I am worried about “Nana.” I know Sara and Elizabeth are very busy but I wish I could hear from her oftener. I’m not very good at writing as you know but I do try to write to her and I want to know how she is getting along. The doctor is working on Daddy now so I had better bring this to an end. I am so tired of trying to say how I feel in letters. They are a most unsatisfactory way of conveying what one is really thinking. I can only say “I love you” but you will know I mean it as much as I always have, only more so.

all my love,

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