Handwritten letter, continuation: closing 'Yours Ellen' and a new section 'Tuesday — dear Sis' (1874 Mother's-death cluster)
Book 1, Page 155
Transcription
An open-book scan showing two facing leaves of a handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper, written in a flowing cursive. The left column is annotated at the top by two pencilled notes in another hand. The right column begins a fresh section dated “Tuesday.”
Left column
[Pencilled annotation, top of column]: (he had given me the brooch in Wentworth st.)
[Pencilled annotation, beneath the first]: (Kate wears Mrs. King’s brooch now.)
Mrs. King’s hair — I told Tody, I would put some of Mother’s hair in with James’ in the little brooch, & send it to Ellen — because she would remember seeing Mother wear it — I think of Ellen so much, I feel as if she was as near to Mother as we are, she loved & understood Mother, & was so entirely a joy to her all her dear little “life” — Kate reminded us of Father’s kissing Ellen, & saying “Bless the dear little baby, for her Name —” I can’t write any more today — I think of each of the boys, & their way of speaking to & of Mother & I know how they valued her — All send love to you —
Yours Ellen
Right column
Tuesday
dear Sis Your letter to me came yesterday — I will enquire about a servant for you — The Danish girl did not come — I have been thinking about a servant for you ever since you left — I trust you will not have to cook again — I know just how you distress yourself about not having stay’d with Mother & not being with her at the last — & though, I know now, as I knew then, that she would, for herself, as well as you, always have told you to go as you did, to see your friends for your children’s sake; as well as your own. Still that all seems like nothing now when there can never more come, quiet days spent beside her, talking to her or hearing her soft tones & gentle thoughts — I feel as if it is an “endless regret,” till I remember that even these things are ordered for some
AI Notes
An open-book scan showing two columns of a handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper. Two pencilled annotations at the top of the left column read ‘he had given me the brooch in Wentworth st.’ (Wentworth Street, Charleston) and ‘Kate wears Mrs. King’s brooch now.’ The brooch in the writer’s hands belonged to a Mrs. King; the servant Tody is named throughout; the Tuesday-letter servant is described as the ‘Danish girl’; and the writer’s closing phrase is ‘endless regret.’
Letter cluster placement: this is part of the 1874 Mother’s-death cluster of letters preserved in the album (pp038-040, 043-044, 137, 148, 155, 156, and book-002 pp233-234). ‘Mother’ = Ellen Milliken Barker (1807–1874), mother of Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons. The writer signs ‘Yours Ellen’ and addresses the recipient as ‘Sis’ and ‘Auntie’ — so the writer is Ellen Milliken Barker Porcher (‘Aunt Ellen Porcher,’ Susan’s sister), writing to Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons. The ‘Ellen’ spoken of in the third person — ‘I think of Ellen so much… she loved & understood Mother… all her dear little ‘life’’… 'Father’s kissing Ellen, & saying ‘‘Bless the dear little baby, for her Name’’ — is Susan’s young daughter Ellen Milliken FitzSimons (b. 27 Nov 1862; therefore 11–12 when Mother died in 1874), who had been named for her grandmother Ellen and was Father’s special favorite. Aunt Ellen Porcher is putting a lock of Mother’s hair into the little brooch (along with hair of someone called ‘James’) to send to her niece little Ellen FitzSimons to remember her grandmother by. Kate wears Mrs. King’s brooch now — likely a sister or sister-in-law. Tody is a household servant. The brooch had been given to the writer ‘in Wentworth Street’ (the Charleston address of an earlier residence).
Letter continues on next page.