Letter, Monday, to 'My dearest Ellie' on the celebration of her retirement (page 1)
Book 1, Page 515 ·1948
Transcription
Monday
My dearest Ellie — It was good to hear your voice. I was so disappointed at not coming, & could not bear to leave for West Va tomorrow without talking to you. Minnie was so good to call me last night & to give me such a lovely picture of the celebration — She said it was all in your honor & centered around you & that you looked grand! John comes through on his way to Hendersonville at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. I go to meet him as he will be here 25 minutes then come home & pick up my things & catch the next train to Charleston (but not the night one) I will get back Friday morning. —
I am eager to hear the details of the retirement. — It sounds as if they had really had some intelligence to give you the salary & keep your honorary position & counsel on policy — I do hope this means that all the agonising over details will be relieved — I wish you did not have to drag back & forth this summer. — What are they going to do for a librarian?
I must put this in the mail now my dearest love & write me all about it. — I never had a letter from you last week so perhaps you have it still! Love to the family & lots for you
AI Notes
First page of a letter in blue ink on a single sheet, dated only ‘Monday.’ Addressed to ‘My dearest Ellie’ (Ellen Milliken FitzSimons, the long-serving Charleston Library Society librarian), from ‘Louise FitzSimons’ per the p516 pencil docket — most likely her niece Louise de Burian FitzSimons (daughter of Aunt Ellen’s brother Theodore Stoney FitzSimons + Salina/Sabina McCrady), though the identification rests solely on the docket. The writer regrets having had to leave without staying to speak to Ellie; recounts that Minnie had telephoned the previous night to describe the celebration (‘it was all in your honor & centered around you & that you looked grand!’); reports that John comes through on his way to Hendersonville at 7 p.m. the following night, that the writer will meet him at the station for 25 minutes, then come home and catch the next train to Charleston (but not the night one) and get back Friday morning. Hopes the retirement arrangement will relieve all the agonising over details, and expresses concern that Ellie should not have to ‘drag back & forth this summer.’ Asks ‘What are they going to do for a librarian?’ Closes with love to the family. The reference to ‘the salary & keep your honorary position & counsel on policy’ is the writer’s appreciative paraphrase of the resolution by which Aunt Ellen retired as Librarian of the Charleston Library Society on 1 October 1948 ‘at full pay’ with the honorary-librarian title (per the resolution on book-001/p501). The letter is therefore datable to late Sept / early Oct 1948, written the day after the retirement celebration. Continues on page 516.