A letter written by Susie Purschke (nee Donnelly) to her Aunt Opal, Alberta June 4, 1931

 

My Dear Aunt, Uncle and Cousins,

 

I just got your kind letter today and was oh so glad to hear from you and I was awfully glad to get the pictures. Uncle Dee looks very much as he did when we left Kansas. You are a wee bit thinner and of course I wouldn't know any of the children except Theodore. He hasn't changed any, except he is a little thinner than he was when he was up here. I was awfully sorry to hear he had been sick. That war surely left its mark on a good many of the poor boys.

 

My oldest brother, Johnnie, was badly wounded and has to be within five minutes call of a doctor all the time. He is married and has five lovely children. Ile lives in Vancouver, BC. He is the manager of a theatre there. Pat is married and lives in Jasper and they have three cute kiddies. He is firing in the railroad and expects to be an engineer someday. Roger is married and lives at Clyde. He bought a farm and is farming. They also have three cute kiddies. Augustine also has a farm at Clyde. He isn't married. He was in the hospital all winter‑ He has T.B., but I think he is pretty well over it now. He came home from the hospital and he is staying here with us now. Of course he won't be able to work for another year or so, and he spends most of his time in bed yet. He is trying very hard to get cured. I think he is going out to Jasper and Vancouver later on. You see, Jasper and Vancouver are in the mountains and he thinks the change might do him a lot of good and the doctor says it would. And poor Frank, I guess you heard that he accidentally shot himself one evening when he was out hunting and died instantly and that was a shock that our dear father never got over and he died a year later. Frank has been dead three years and Father two years. Tom is married and has a farm at Clyde. He only married last fall, so they have no children yet, but are expecting one Sometime this summer. Tom was up in Alaska for six x years and just got home before Dad died. Ed is married and has a farm at Clyde and they also have three cute kiddies. Roger and Ed married sisters. The boys all have nice wives and happy homes and my sister and I have good husbands and happy homes. That sounds funny, but then you see you live so far away from us and I figure you would like to know all about us, so I am trying to tell you. Agnes has three lovely little girls, one pair of twins three years old and one little girl born last fall. And Willie isn't married yet. He has a farm at Clyde and he hires a cook most of the time. He doesn't like batching. He is the youngest, he is 21. Agnes lives in Legal. Her husband works in a store. My husband is a farmer. We have 480 acres here at Opal, that is about 27 miles from Clyde and we have four children, two girls and two boys. Our oldest, Cecilia, she is fifteen, Roger is thirteen, Margaret nine and little Albert, the baby, is five. They are all going to school, but Albert. He hasn't started yet. The girls are both taking lessons on the piano. Roger was taking lessons too, but he got tired of it and wanted to stop.

 

Now dear Auntie, I want you to write and tell me all about yourself and family. God knows how much I would love to see you all. It was just 20 years ago last April that dear Mama died and you know, when she died there was no cemetery at Clyde, so we had to bury her about eight miles from Clyde. But now there is a nice cemetery at Clyde and of course when Frank and Papa died, we buried them at Clyde and last summer we moved Mama down and put her beside Papa and now we have all three there together.

 

Aunt Hannah just got your letter last week. I think it went to another Mrs. Ed Hess away up north of Clyde and she didn't send it back to Aunt Hannah until last week or you surely would have heard from us sooner. Allie that is my husband and Augustine have gone over to Allies mother's today. She lives about 30 miles from here. I wish you could see her. She is just as much like Grandma Slocum as she can be and she surely has been a mother to me. Papa always said he would like to go and see her because she was so much like Mama's mother and dear Aunt Hannah was surely good to us kids when we were younger and in need of a mother's care. You see, we just lived a mile and a half from her and I don't know what we would have done without her, for it was so lonely sometimes after Mama was gone.

 

Well Auntie, I must close now and get supper and look after my chickens. Trusting that this will find you all well and happy.

 

I am your ever‑loving niece,

 

Susie.