Handwritten letter from Ellen to Amy, February 23, 1962 — page 1 (retirement and a bout of flu)
Book 1, Page 598 ·1962
Transcription
February 23, 1962
Dearest Amy —
Just a matter of five weeks since you wrote me — please forgive me. I thought that I would put everything off until I retired on January 31 — then catch up on every-thing I’d neglected. Instead of that the plain old fashioned flu caught up with me, and my first three weeks of retirement have been spent in bed. Such a waste! I’m fine now — but weak still. Mickey came to spend Lincoln’s birthday with me — and she already was coming down — so she was in bed here ten days — we had a two bed hospital and were lucky to have my good next-door neighbor, Ilona to take care of both of us — she was wonderful!
AI Notes
First page of a handwritten letter in blue ink on cream stationery, dated February 23, 1962, beginning ‘Dearest Amy —’. The writer apologizes for delay, reports that she had planned to catch up on correspondence after retiring on January 31 but came down with influenza and spent the first three weeks of her retirement in bed. ‘Mickey’ came for Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12) and stayed ten days, and a next-door neighbor ‘Ilona’ nursed both of them. The handwriting and stationery match page 599 of the same album: this leaf is page 1 (date + salutation + opening paragraph) of the same three-page ‘Ellen’ letter that continues on pages 599, 600, 601. The page-601 signature ‘Ellen’ identifies the writer; she is the ‘Young Ellen’ niece-or-cousin discussed in the family notes — definitely not Aunt Ellen Milliken FitzSimons, who died in 1953.
The letter continues on page 599 with the writer realising ‘only yesterday’ that she has really retired, and onwards through pages 600 and 601, closing with the signature ‘Ellen.’