[Headlines from The New York Times (page 1, above the fold) to place the letters in context of the world around them.]
ENGLAND HONORS UNKNOWN SOLDIER AS WAR MEMORIAL
Body Borne Through Streets to Cenotaph and Then Buried at Westminster. KING AS CHIEF MOURNER Throngs Watch Impressive Ceremonies and Pay Tribute with Countless Wreaths.
Hoover Seeks $23,000,000 To Feed European Children
John H. Broad
Morrisville, New York
11-12-20
Dear Sister:
Thanks for your kind letter and the very generous expressions contained therein.
I am now mending rapidly. Have had my clothes on for three days and while my left leg and right hand continue to be a bit wobbly the doctor thinks I will be able to go to the office for an hour on Monday or Tuesday.
I assume Bess has advised you on Mildred’s and my plans. Only for her kind offer I do not know what I would do.
The brightest and about only way I have found or experienced during these dark weeks was the news came from Oneida Hospital a fortnight ago=and the blessed little baby Marie that was ushered in=to a not altogether wicked world. She was loved by a doting grand dad months before she was born.
Rachel has developed into a wonderful girl. She has already written me two beautiful letters in which she expresses herself as being the most fortunate, the happiest and most contented girl in the land with no end of gratitude for her manifold blessings. Her dad loves her and she loves and understands he dad.
My hand compels me to quit abruptly.
Love to you and yours
Bro John
Editor's notes
John Broad (Susan’s brother) was an “outstanding figure in political and civic affairs” according to the Madison County Leader. His parents arrived in Lee Center, N.Y. from Golantin,England a few years before he was born in 1871. When he was eight , he took a job lighting lamps for the village. At twelve he became a printing apprentice and spent his life as a journalist and publisher of the Madison County Observer. He was also the Postmaster of Morrisville for several years, served on the Board of Trustees of the Morrisville Agricultural School, which he helped found, and was a successful farmer.
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