Letter from Mrs Payne, mother of Flight Sergeant Malcolm Payne, to Doris Weeks
Title
Letter from Mrs Payne, mother of Flight Sergeant Malcolm Payne, to Doris Weeks
Description
Thanks for letter and photographs. Says how much they are missing Malcolm's letters. Writes about Malcolm being recommended for commission and about contact with Canadians. Talks about family activities and concludes with hope for miracle that Malcolm might still be alive.
Creator
Date
1944-11-16
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Four page handwritten letter and envelope
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
EPayneMLWeeksD441116
Transcription
[postmark]
[postage stamp]
Miss D. Weeks.
37 Hawthorne Rd.
Bunker’s Hill
Lincoln
England
[page break]
“Jarawonga”
Watervale
Sth. Aust.
16.11.44
My dear Doris,
Your letter was posted on 26th Sept & I rec. it today – Nov. 16th – so they are coming rather quickly now. I was so glad to receive your letter & the snaps – thanks so much for them. I have had time to read your letter thro, & have a look at the snaps, since I scribbled your hasty air letter. The snaps are lovely – Mr Payne said, on seeing you, “The fuzzy haired little tike!” Well that’s just like him. Yes I can imagine how you miss Malcolm’s company – that’s how we’re missing his letters, & the hurt seems to get deeper each day. He was always a fussy kid with his clothes & when he was pressing his pants neat he used to take possession of the kitchen, there was no possible hope of doing any work in there for two or three hours. He has worked [indecipherable word] doubly hard & deserves everything that comes his way. He was quite modest about having been recomm-
[page break]
ended for a commission. He was always a tease & used to have me on pins & needles at times, I never knew when he was serious. Dear God! if he could only come back to us! We get very depressed, his father said tonight that at times he cannot realize we will not see the dear kid again. For we have given up all hope, after such a long time. I had a letter from Mrs Brown today but she had to bring it to a conclusion, the tears were falling & she could not see to write. She is very grateful to you, Doris, for having obtained the Canadian addresses for us. I had a letter from Mrs Armstrong yesterday, ours crossed as its only a fortnight since I wrote her. Doris has gone cherry picking in the beautiful Adelaide hills – She was in charge of the girls & the housekeeping during the pea picking at Reynella, & she had a lovely letter from the State Superintendant saying that as she had such a wonderful report from their employer she had no hesitation of putting her in charge again at Basket Range., They have a little furnished cottage, & one girl takes
[page break]
3)
over the cooking today, & another one tomorrow [indecipherable word]. They pay £1 week board or rather towards their keep, & when the books are done on the completion of the job, there is usually quite a few shillings refund coming to each girl. At Reynella a lady rented the furnished cottage during the year but had to leave it for the month during the pea picking. She left her piano carefully locked & covered all over. Several of the girls could play & several sang nicely & the temptation was just too much. They found a [deleted] nile [/deleted] nail file unlocked the piano, & locked it again when they left. The morning they were leaving they decided to have a sleep in – Their employers young son came with the milk & told them a huge snake was just outside the back door. There was a mad scramble for dressing gowns & slippers & armed with brooms, axes, & what have you, they killed the beastly thing. The weather here at present is terribly – it is so hot & sultry & sticky – one hasn’t much energy for working. I think I had better conclude this dreadful scribble Doris – you growl about your writing – I wish I had such a neat hand
[page break]
Beleive [sic] me, dear, I pray day & night that even yet a miracle might happen & our dear boy come safely back to us.
The time is long, & the waiting hard, tho.
Fondest love,
Yours sincerely,
M L Payne. xxxxx
[postage stamp]
Miss D. Weeks.
37 Hawthorne Rd.
Bunker’s Hill
Lincoln
England
[page break]
“Jarawonga”
Watervale
Sth. Aust.
16.11.44
My dear Doris,
Your letter was posted on 26th Sept & I rec. it today – Nov. 16th – so they are coming rather quickly now. I was so glad to receive your letter & the snaps – thanks so much for them. I have had time to read your letter thro, & have a look at the snaps, since I scribbled your hasty air letter. The snaps are lovely – Mr Payne said, on seeing you, “The fuzzy haired little tike!” Well that’s just like him. Yes I can imagine how you miss Malcolm’s company – that’s how we’re missing his letters, & the hurt seems to get deeper each day. He was always a fussy kid with his clothes & when he was pressing his pants neat he used to take possession of the kitchen, there was no possible hope of doing any work in there for two or three hours. He has worked [indecipherable word] doubly hard & deserves everything that comes his way. He was quite modest about having been recomm-
[page break]
ended for a commission. He was always a tease & used to have me on pins & needles at times, I never knew when he was serious. Dear God! if he could only come back to us! We get very depressed, his father said tonight that at times he cannot realize we will not see the dear kid again. For we have given up all hope, after such a long time. I had a letter from Mrs Brown today but she had to bring it to a conclusion, the tears were falling & she could not see to write. She is very grateful to you, Doris, for having obtained the Canadian addresses for us. I had a letter from Mrs Armstrong yesterday, ours crossed as its only a fortnight since I wrote her. Doris has gone cherry picking in the beautiful Adelaide hills – She was in charge of the girls & the housekeeping during the pea picking at Reynella, & she had a lovely letter from the State Superintendant saying that as she had such a wonderful report from their employer she had no hesitation of putting her in charge again at Basket Range., They have a little furnished cottage, & one girl takes
[page break]
3)
over the cooking today, & another one tomorrow [indecipherable word]. They pay £1 week board or rather towards their keep, & when the books are done on the completion of the job, there is usually quite a few shillings refund coming to each girl. At Reynella a lady rented the furnished cottage during the year but had to leave it for the month during the pea picking. She left her piano carefully locked & covered all over. Several of the girls could play & several sang nicely & the temptation was just too much. They found a [deleted] nile [/deleted] nail file unlocked the piano, & locked it again when they left. The morning they were leaving they decided to have a sleep in – Their employers young son came with the milk & told them a huge snake was just outside the back door. There was a mad scramble for dressing gowns & slippers & armed with brooms, axes, & what have you, they killed the beastly thing. The weather here at present is terribly – it is so hot & sultry & sticky – one hasn’t much energy for working. I think I had better conclude this dreadful scribble Doris – you growl about your writing – I wish I had such a neat hand
[page break]
Beleive [sic] me, dear, I pray day & night that even yet a miracle might happen & our dear boy come safely back to us.
The time is long, & the waiting hard, tho.
Fondest love,
Yours sincerely,
M L Payne. xxxxx
Collection
Citation
M L Payne, “Letter from Mrs Payne, mother of Flight Sergeant Malcolm Payne, to Doris Weeks,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/10613.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.