Letter from Gwen Brooks to her father
Title
Letter from Gwen Brooks to her father
Description
She expresses sympathy about his health and an operation he has recently had. The letter also contains some family news.
Creator
Date
1944-12-15
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Four handwritten sheets
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.
Contributor
Identifier
EBrooksGBrooksSW441215-0001, EBrooksGBrooksSW441215-0002, EBrooksGBrooksSW441215-0003, EBrooksGBrooksSW441215-0004
Transcription
15 Dec 1944: Dear Dad, from Gwen
Probably you will be surprised to receive this letter from me. I only hope you will be able to read it as you always have trouble trying to decipher my writing. Perhaps mother can help you out if you do get stuck.
I was talking to mother a few minutes ago on the telephone. She had just arrived in Bowmanville and wanted to know if Grant was coming out after her. It is a very rough windy night out so we decided she had better stay in town with Aunt Gladys. It would be a very bad trip for Grant to go after her.
Grant called up Mrs. Bragg tonight and expects Ross will be coming over in the morning to pull the car either to Milton Wight’s or Connly’s so we can drive to school.
Mother was telling me that you have had another operation. That is too bad. But you might as well get it all over with so you will feel better when you come home. Mother has probably told you that Douglas Burdett had his appendix out and Earl Osborne his tonsils out last week. So you are not the only person who is enjoying an enforced rest.
Everything is going along very well here at home. But as Grant said we are beginning to realize how much dad really did around here. However we manage things fairly well. Grant with mother's able assistance gets the chores done okay but doesn't get as much time to study as he might like to. But we won't expect him to get any very high marks just as long as he gets through in all of them.
It certainly was good news about two more of Glenn's crew being prisoners1. It certainly looks as though he will be walking in home one of these days soon. You had better hurry up and get well and be home to welcome him. But really dad, I believe we are going to get good news of Glenn very soon now!
Well Daddy I think I shall soon close for tonight. We have had an awful lot of phone calls enquiring about you. Mrs. Harvey Crassman called long distance to-day to see how you were coming. Aunt Myrtle calls about every 5 minutes all day long - at least it sometimes seems like that.
Did mother show you the proofs of my photo? Did you like them? As I told mother I didn't realize I looked quite like that but they say the camera doesn't lie. I'll have to put up with it, I guess.
Good-bye for to-night Dad. Sorry Grant and I haven't been able to come up to visit you. Keep improving!
Love Gwendolyn
Probably you will be surprised to receive this letter from me. I only hope you will be able to read it as you always have trouble trying to decipher my writing. Perhaps mother can help you out if you do get stuck.
I was talking to mother a few minutes ago on the telephone. She had just arrived in Bowmanville and wanted to know if Grant was coming out after her. It is a very rough windy night out so we decided she had better stay in town with Aunt Gladys. It would be a very bad trip for Grant to go after her.
Grant called up Mrs. Bragg tonight and expects Ross will be coming over in the morning to pull the car either to Milton Wight’s or Connly’s so we can drive to school.
Mother was telling me that you have had another operation. That is too bad. But you might as well get it all over with so you will feel better when you come home. Mother has probably told you that Douglas Burdett had his appendix out and Earl Osborne his tonsils out last week. So you are not the only person who is enjoying an enforced rest.
Everything is going along very well here at home. But as Grant said we are beginning to realize how much dad really did around here. However we manage things fairly well. Grant with mother's able assistance gets the chores done okay but doesn't get as much time to study as he might like to. But we won't expect him to get any very high marks just as long as he gets through in all of them.
It certainly was good news about two more of Glenn's crew being prisoners1. It certainly looks as though he will be walking in home one of these days soon. You had better hurry up and get well and be home to welcome him. But really dad, I believe we are going to get good news of Glenn very soon now!
Well Daddy I think I shall soon close for tonight. We have had an awful lot of phone calls enquiring about you. Mrs. Harvey Crassman called long distance to-day to see how you were coming. Aunt Myrtle calls about every 5 minutes all day long - at least it sometimes seems like that.
Did mother show you the proofs of my photo? Did you like them? As I told mother I didn't realize I looked quite like that but they say the camera doesn't lie. I'll have to put up with it, I guess.
Good-bye for to-night Dad. Sorry Grant and I haven't been able to come up to visit you. Keep improving!
Love Gwendolyn
Collection
Citation
Gwen Brooks, “Letter from Gwen Brooks to her father,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 24, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/30965.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.