Letter from Norwalk, Iowa, July 10, 1933

letter from Edna Winter to Jane Ann Winter in Truro, Iowa.  

My Dear Big Girl:

I am sitting in the old seat in the west lawn up by your swing. Bruce is resting here beside me and the cats are tumbling about playing and fighting and trying to nurse Shorty.

We have had such a nice rain the lawn is beginning to look green once more.  Daddy [James Winter] is in the country.  He has been quite busy today. I went to S.S. and Church Sunday.  Eula Jean was there.  My class was all boys we had a great time and after we had read the story we made soldier hats out of the S.S. paper.   I promised to teach them to make a boat next Sunday.  

I heard Mr. and Mrs. F-  had a baby boy born July 2.  I also heard they were disappointed for they had both counted on a curly haired girl baby.  

How I have hooked on the big old rug.  Tomorrow I will finish the border and all the leaves.  Then I'll have the inside left.  After I get it out of the frames I'll shear it.  Do you know where the large scissors are?  You surely didn't put them in your bag.  Grandma [Winter] said you might give the pantomime.  When and Where? You will need quite a bit of space to make it look right.  Don't think of doing it without practicing several times.  Be slow and deliberate and know what comes next.  You see its been over a month since children's day and I expect you to be prepared before you perform. This is Tuesday  Your letter will be mailed out this afternoon.  We went up to the Millers last night about 9:30 A business call. Helen asked for you.  She has a little brother 4 years old.  It was 10:30 when we got home and they hadn't milked their cows yet.  I hoed some in the garden this morning.  Worked until the water begin to drip off my chin.  Then I picked some cherries for sauce.  We don't eat much.  I made a cake for Daddy Sunday he still has enough to last until tomorrow.  I have the missionary meeting here Fri. afternoon.  Don't you think Daddy had better come for our Thurs. or Fri. Evening?  So far I have nos surprise.  There might be a tiny one by the time you would get home.

I want to write to Grandma Robins now and take a bath.

Love to my dear Little (Big) Girl  Jane Ann.  

Edna Dell Robins

This is my grandmother (mother's mother), Edna Winters, originally Edna Dell Robins.  She does look a lot like my mother.  I really remember little about her and have only made one post about her previously, here.  I remember that we visited her in San Francisco where she lived in an apartment near the Presidio, that she was a nurse, that she had some relation to Alcatraz and showed me, or gave me, a letter stamped with Alcatraz and a pelican (perhaps she was a nurse there).

She and my grandfather divorced when my mother was a teenager.  Malcolm Winter writes this about her "I always thought a lot of my aunt Edna. She was a middle aged white haired lady when I knew her - very friendly and considerate.  However after 20 or so years of marriage to my Uncle Jim, she developed a number of delusions about him that eventually resulted in his divorcing her. After the divorce I didn't see her again, but understand that her delusions cleared.She moved to California and lived there till her death."

Edna was devoted to my mother, her only child, and would often do restaurant work near where my mom was going to school or attending summer camp.