Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: letter

  • To My Dear Friend

    To My Dear Friend

    Me, Sandy, and Kathy at a winery on the river. It was pouring rain that day and we were soaked to the skin. So why am I the only one that looks like a drowned rat? You too came out FAB!

    Dear Sandy,

    Tomorrow I’ll drive down to your hometown to hug your family.  We’ll cry at our loss of having you near.  I can’t say I’ll be telling you good-bye then.  I did that two weeks ago on the phone.  My gut said this was it, my heart didn’t want to hear it.  Still I can’t help but smile through the tears so glad I got to tell you one more time, how much I love you my dear friend.

    No you don’t look silly Kathy, you are just telling it like it is. Sandy is taking you seriously too.

    When I remember you it’s through smiles. I remember working together and how you were great to show me the ropes at a new company.  Then started our monthly Girls Night Out (GNO as they call them now) at the Mexican restaurant with Kathy. We made a trio.  We took a whole table for the night but always tipped accordingly while we dished over margaritas, chips and salsa, and dinner.  I always got the extra hot green salsa, remember?Fun times!

    Honestly it helped me cope with working full-time, having a toddler that moved on to middle school by the time our monthly meetings chapter came to a close.  Different jobs, different companies, different people came and went for the three of us during those days but we  held on to our  regular meetings.  Maybe it was augmented by the tequila but I know it was the friendship that kept it going.

    (more…)

  • Can You Read HELP Me Read?

    Can You Read HELP Me Read?

    Let me first set the stage for this letter. I am starting to transcribe the 79 pages of my 4th great grandmother Sarah Busick Bright’s application for her widow’s share of her husband James Bright’s Revolutionary War Service Pension. This is going to be a long tedious job as file is all hand written, at times not in the best penmanship. Currently I’m trying to translate this letter that’s in response to Andrew Johnson’s letter of September 1848. At the time he was her representative in the House of Representatives and apparently her lawyer had asked him to help in securing the pension. Yes Andrew would become Lincoln’s Vice-President and President upon Lincoln’s assassination but that was in the future for these letters. Mr. Johnson writes

    Will Cal Edwards please inform me what has been done in this case – these papers were left with the comm. before I left the city.
    A Johnson

    This letter appears next in the file as if to reply (I think)

    letter is possible response to written comment on previous page from President Andrew Johnson

    Here’s what I got so far with blanks for what I can’t make out.

    Blountville Sept 7 1848

    Dear Sir

    I sent you about 2 mo. ago old Mrs Bright’s old P certificate with her application to be continued on the role. – I have not heard from it – Will you please drop me a lin and inform me what you did with it ________ What think you? Is not the election between Cap & Van Buren It seems to me that this old Hero of Buena Vista & Regular(?) after 40 years out do well ___ ____ on the roll of the army. Is it not a strange thing _____ the _______ a party should take a regular _____ ____ and that only of the army and offer him as a candidate for an office of ________ magnitude I tremble for the President

    How A Johnson

    Yours truly
    Saul Rhea

    a line by next mail will much oblige

    I’m not quite sure how that ending goes with the big pen scribble in the middle there. I don’t get exactly what he’s saying either about the election or what it has to do with Mrs Bright’s application for the widow’s pension.

    Any way give the original a look over and see if you can help fill in any blanks or divine the meaning of this reply.

    As always love comments, ratings, and likes. You know where to find me until next time!