6 October, 1996

Dear S, Jack and Brady,

So very pleased to get your letter and lovely snaps of you all and also the post card you sent from the Canary Islands, it came the same day as your letter and snaps.  So sorry to hear you haven’t been well S and do hope you are gradually coming good.  When something is wrong it seems to take ages for them to find the real trouble, it’s a case of one test after the other, the simple, most common things first but now they have got onto the trouble it also will be a slow process to get things right.  You have also had the upheaval of settling Brady into a nursery that was probably harder on you than her. It was good that she had a while with your friend and her daughter, especially as you knew the other lady well maybe that helped get Brady used to other people but she will learn many new things at Nursery.

Your Father came up and gave us the presents you sent over with him.  Pop reckons the socks you sent will be beaut later on when the days are warmer as he is still wearing the ones I knitted for him at the moment.  And I’ll smell beaut with my bath foam and body powder and such a lovely perfume, thanks a lot.  Your Father has had a decent dose of flu, he says it was caused by the air conditioning in the plane it generally affects him that way, he gets so congested and feels and looks so miserable, but he enjoyed seeing you all so much.

So glad to hear your sister and brother-in-law have had a little girl. Time will help them heal.  When one has been hurt like they have been, most tend to put a barrier round oneself just afraid of being hurt again.

Pop’s has been going to town every 3rd day to have his foot dressed but yesterday he wore shoes for the first time since June so now he will only have to have it dressed every five days.  We are having very nice Spring weather.  Melbourne had a bad storm last night.   Yesterday I washed all the bedspreads and got them dry too.

Do hope you had a lovely birthday S and that you got your 7:30pm call from your Father.  He has been worried about you, we always do worry about our loved ones, just because they grow up and make their own way we still worry.

We have lots of blossoms on our fruit trees but as always the birds wont leave them alone no matter what we have hanging in the trees. We are very slow getting our veggie garden going, we have 28 tomato plants, a row of beans and two rows of broad beans and a few lettuce plants but we won’t put much more in this year, neither Pop nor I any good at digging.  Our flower garden looks and smells nice, it’s a good time of the year.  I do like Spring and some mornings I can spend an hour and a half outside on my own in the garden before Pop gets up and I have to make his breakfast.

Well must away and I’ll catch the Postie. Lots of love and do hope you are feeling lots better.

x Love from Nana and Pop x