Letter to David Donaldson from his mother

Letter to David Donaldson from his mother

Sends best wishes for Christmas and catches up with news of family and acquaintances. Mentions a nurse keeping them all in order. Mentions reflected glory she gets from him with fellow magistrates. Writes of granddaughter and hope to see them soon.

1943-12-22

Four page handwritten letter

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EDonaldsonFIDonaldsonDW431222

Brambridge – Dec 22
THE ELMS,
42, PEAR TREE AVENUE,
BITTERNE,
SOUTHAMPTON.
Dearest Dave
this is only a note to send you best wishes for Christmas, Joyce said there was a chance of [inserted] your [inserted] spending it at Oxshott, I do hope you will, I rang her up last night & heard that you had moved to Norfolk, also that Mabel was going down to Oxshott for Christmas day, I had a jubilant letter from Mabel rejoicing in the kindness of Mrs Edwards at having asked her. Two letters arrived today, from Ian and Norman, they had met and spent 2 nights together, which was lovely, I was so pleased, I will send on heir letters after Xmas, there are several you have not seen, but I think its best to wait until the Xmas rush is over – Ian thinks he may be moving, Norman is at New Delhi, & when he wrote sounded as
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if he was not loving it overmuch, but he had only just arrived there, it was the day before his birthday, he was rather cold & had got a sore throat, so I hope by now he has recovered. Ian sounded very pleased to have him. We are all very well William Francis continues to thrive and grow fat,eats and sleeps, & yells from 8 – 10 every evening, Elizabeth is very well, she has been very lucky all through and has got on splendidly, she seems to have found her vocation in life, having and feeding babies I have not seen her so placid, & happy & well for years & years, we had a nurse who kept us all in order for a fortnight but thank goodness she has gone – we have shocked [inserted] & shaken [/inserted] Brambridge House to its depths by hanging the washing out on the veranda [deleted 'h'] & all over the radiators Masters being the only one that sympathises with us, he said in a hoarse whisper in my ear “Coo, it would drive me crackers to live in this house all day”.
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I do hope you are less cold in Norfolk than you were at Lincoln –
You cannot imagine the amount of reflected glory I get from you[deleted 'r'] in Southampton, my fellow magistrates are always digging me in the ribs & asking me if I am not proud of you, I feel so [word deleted] grateful to you, May Durst (née Blakiston) wrote to me and said she felt proud to think you had once been sick all down her skirt!,
I must stop & go to bed, Thorny is already in bed & snoring – I have not done any Xmas shopping or written to anybody; I feel quite awful, I shall have to content myself with filling William's stocking and ringing up Frances to wish her a happy Xmas, Joyce says she
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now has a lovely smile, quite different to William's [word deleted] windy grins, I see the great rivalry has started – I'm longing to see Frances again, I must try and get up & see her in January – very much love from us all, I should love to see you & I do hope you get over to Oxshott in Xmas day
very much love
from
Mummie