Wednesday, February 3rd, 1943

This letter is unfortunately incomplete.

My darling Joan,

We received your very welcome and lovely letter this morning. It had taken 37 days – what a long time! And it is 5 weeks since we had the last one. Even John was getting impatient this week and said several times “Joan is a long time writing, I’ve written to her lots of times”, which is rather an exaggeration, isn’t it? He and Anne slept rather late this morning and when I called him to get up he said, he said he was tired. So I said “I’ve got a letter from Joan!” That got him up, and they both stood by me while I read it to them. That is, all except the little bit that was especially for me. I am so very glad that you have understood Auntie Mary’s explanation about “growing up” so well. I have felt rather worried about you since her last letter and I am so relieved you have written to me about it yourself. Now you know, dear, why mothers and daughters are always so close to each other – they have a secret between them they don’t talk to boys about. I am sorry though that you have to grow up so young, but so many little girls do these days and once started, it shouldn’t make much difference to you. Of course, you may not start for a long time yet, so don’t worry at all about it. Just tell Auntie Mary how you feel and she will know. Goodness, how grateful I am to Auntie Mary for taking such good care of you.

You gave me the nicest piece of news I’ve had for a long time. You really have got nice finger nails at last! Bravo dear! I know it must have been hard for you to break the habit – now you can really use the manicure set Auntie gave you last Christmas. You were certainly a very lucky girl this Christmas getting so many lovely parcels. You have got a large family with 6 dolls, haven’t you, and I notice you keep their clothes nicely washed too. In fact, you are getting quite clever at washing and ironing. Won’t Anne love to see all your dollies if you can bring them home! She only has one. It was nice and sunny when they came home from school this afternoon, so I told them to play in the garden. When I went out later, what do you think they were playing? Houses! Just like you used to, and Anne had a tea set with water and some acorns I had for the rabbits, for food, with of course all the bits of wood and stones etc.

Yes, Joan, White Christmas is a great favourite over here too and the dance bands almost always include in their programmes. I like it very much. John said he wished to live in America so he could play with the snow and a sled. One night they both asked Jesus to send some snow (in their prayers) and in the morning there was a thin layer – they were pleased but that’s all we’ve had this year so far. I am glad you all got your books safely, but what a nuisance the instructions of Dora’s card were lost. I should think it dropped out at...