Letter from Ellen to Amy Walker, October 7, 1955 — page 2
Book 1, Page 552 ·1955
Transcription
that time the ones of us who are there seem to draw closer together.
You will never know how much your welcoming letter to my New York home meant to me. You knew just how I felt leaving them all — and a whole year until I will be there again. But the peace of the mountains and the warmth of our family affection remains.
Of course I do love New York, my work and my friends. I hope you left Puck’s sister well. I don’t have to tell you — but I will — that knowing you has been one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had. My love to you and Puck.
Ellen
AI Notes
Second sheet of the letter begun on page 551 (Ellen to Amy, 7 Oct 1955), handwritten in blue fountain-pen ink on plain cream paper. Signed ‘Ellen’ at the foot of the page; the closing line is written sideways up the right margin so the signature wraps awkwardly onto the body. ‘Puck’ is the family nickname for Amy’s husband James Pickens Walker Sr.; ‘Puck’s sister’ is therefore James P. Walker Sr.'s sister (a Walker, not a FitzSimons). The writer is Ellen Milliken FitzSimons of the next generation — daughter of Frank Lockwood FitzSimons Sr. of Hendersonville — librarian of the New York Public Library’s Central Circulation Branch (cf. p559), here writing from her New York residence after a summer visit home to the family’s western NC mountain places. The elder Ellen (the Charleston Library Society Librarian and Amy’s paternal aunt) had died 9 July 1953. The closing ‘My love to you and Puck’ is squeezed in along the right edge after the signature.
The closing ‘My love to you and Puck’ is written sideways up the right margin, wrapping the signature ‘Ellen’ at the lower right. ‘Puck’ is the family nickname for James Pickens Walker Sr.; cf. book-002/046 and book-003/012–016 where the same nickname is used for him.