This is just a quick update-y sort of post to let you all know that . . .
My daughter survived the 14-hour drive from New Orleans and is safely home. Can’t even tell you how good it is to have her home for a while. Her cat is very happy too and is having fun showing off her newest trick: opening cupboard doors and exploring inside. [sigh]
My son and his girlfriend are settled into their new place and everyone is still speaking to each other after having experienced the joy and frivolity of moving day. At least no one got hurt. And it didn’t rain.
In between daily stints of working, there has been much talking and cooking and laughing and grocery shopping and baking and several hugs and more talking. And eating. Not much writing at all, but I don’t have a deadline and that can just wait. It will be quiet again soon enough.
I’ve posted a few more of my Great Aunt Mabel’s letters, the ones she wrote while stationed at Stark General Hospital in Charleston, SC in the fall of 1943. You can find them by clicking HERE. I’ve also added a convenient link over there on the sidebar.
And that’s about it. I’m enjoying the break from the internet, even though I feel as if I’m missing all sorts of things. But I’m not missing the important stuff.
Need a day brightener? My daughter emailed me the link to this very funny cat video:
I laughed so hard I had to wipe away tears. Enjoy!
KD James 
Enjoy your family & internet break.
I was reading some of your aunt’s letters. My aunt was also an Army nurse in WW2 – originally from Nova Scotia, studied at Mass General, became a U.S. citizen, & joined the war where she became a Captain. Her ‘basic training’ was completed at Camp Blanding in Florida – just south of Jacksonville & only 30+ minutes from where we now live. She served in N Africa, & Italy just behind the lines & today her letters are part of the Canadian Letters & Images Project. Her name was Frances, but we knew her as Aunt Frank.
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Dave, thanks for mentioning the Canadian Letters & Images Project!
[Link to it here, if anyone else is interested: http://www.canadianletters.ca/index.php ]
I went over and read some of your aunt’s letters too. Frances Charman, yes? I’m really fascinated by these accounts of warfare that aren’t about battles and strategy and losses and victories. The stories that aren’t often told and the people, especially women, who earn no mention in the history books.
I wonder whether the US has something similar. I’d love to donate these letters to a site that would preserve the memories. Ah well, for now I’ll continue to post them over here. By January 1944, Mabel had embarked from California and was on a ship “Somewhere on the Pacific” and headed for Australia.
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I watched that cat viceo, and you know what I think? Well, first of all, if I could get someone to continously pour wine on my head and have it run down into my mouth, thus saving me the effort of having to pick up a glass and raise up my arms, you betcha I’d drink that way.
But that cat, he’s messing with his owners. he’s saying, “You’ve been fed a line my friend, you’ve been told that cats despise water. Well, lookie here, bub, I embrace the water; I’ve made the water my friend. And you’d better go to bed with protection, because this is just the first step…Next, I kill you in your sleep.”
“Mwahhahhhahhhaaaaaaa…………(cough couch) sorry, hairball.”
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*SNORT* What an image. SD, you and I are going to have to make plans to attend the same writing conference, at the same time, someday soon. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
My cat is (I think) 17 years old. She has had exactly one bath in her lifetime. There’s a reason for that. It has a lot to do with me living to see another day.
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I’m going to have to ask my Aunt Petey if she wrote letters when she was a nurse back in WWII. Seems like everybody felt obliged to save letters that were written by a nurse.
She served in Texas and then went on to Europe… Paris, at least. Then she became a cloistered nun and raised goats. Do you know how confusing it is to address a letter to Sister Aunt Petey?
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Wow, first we have Aunt Frank, now Sister Aunt Petey. I’m starting to think everyone had an aunt who was a nurse during WWII. I hope they all wrote letters. I’d love to read them, Merry, if you get ahold of any.
I imagine Army nurses these days write emails. Just not the same. Still, I hope someone is saving them.
My Aunt Mabel never practiced nursing again, but instead became a dental hygienist. I asked my mom if she knew why. She said no one ever talked about it. Typical stoic Minnesotans.
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Hey, welcome back!
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Ssshh. It’s still August. I’m not really back yet. (But thanks for the welcome, McB.)
Just thought I’d better write a quick post before I forgot how.
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