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Ascheberg, February 20, 1893

Please write to me again!

My dear brother and sister-in-law,

I will write to you again. I have written to you so frequently but I never receive a reply. I wonder if my letters ever get to you. This will perhaps be the last letter I write to you.

I am old, I am 79 or 80 years old, and I don't amount to a lot any more. I went to church for the last time the last Sunday in September. Last winter I remained at home only once because the weather was so bad. We have such a nice carriage, the nicest one in Ascheberg, and it's so cozy and warm. To sit in it, it's as warm as sitting in a room. And we can close it up.

I am neither well nor healthy. I cough, and my chest hurts. On Friday night before the feast day of the Immaculate Conception I suddenly became very ill and thought I was going to die. I had terrible pains in my stomach, and again on Saturday night. Then they called the doctor, and on Saturday morning they gave me the Last Rites. My husband wasn't well, either, but now he has recovered. But he has rheumatism in one leg. He can't bear to sit around the house with nothing to do; he cooks the swill for the pigs. I sit in our bedroom and do embroidery or sewing; we have a nice stove there. They don't want me to go out into the kitchen, they always think I'm going to [get better?].

Last year, 1892, on the day after All Saints, our Theodor got married. He married Gertrud Silkenbeiner from this parish, about 1 1/2 hrs. away from our house. We had a big wedding, more than 300 guests. Our life is a good life, we can get whatever we want. Theodor and Bernard work well together. The worst thing that happened to us was that four weeks before Easter the young wife [Gertrud] fell ill, and she was sick for 17 weeks. She received the Last Rites of the church. She had to be moved from one bed to the other, and the men, either Theodor or Bernard, had to do this. For 11 weeks we had a visiting nurse; the young wife had an inflammation of the abdomen [peritonitis?]. I was quite healthy, and all summer long I did all the work in the kitchen until this fall – she [Gertrud] could not do the work. Then I became sick again, but it's not too bad…

Brother Heinrich you know about. Maria Husam is now Mrs. Bleckmann; she was married two years ago this fall. The others of the Husam family are well, as far as I know. Our daughter Anna's husband has been dead 2 years this Lent. He was crushed by a falling wall of a house that had burned down. She has 4 children. She got married again this fall.

On February 21 we had a big snow storm.

I'll have to close. Many regards from all of us, especially from the young wife… I have no more paper.

Translated by Joan Schell