1317 N. Chas. St.
The Johns Hopkins HospitalOct. 26, 1919.
Lady dear,
It has been at least 3 mos. since I have written you. Helen Vincent tells me you had a good vacation in Maine, & that you are looking well. Also that your mother doesn't change. I am glad to hear all this for I know it means a better year for you.
I had my usual summer with a few new complications, & returned here Sept. 15 about as tired as when I left July 1st. Mother was not at home till Sept. 1st. She's there now with an attendant, & seems to be behaving too good to last. She'll doubtless return to Conn. either at Thanksgiving or Christmas. The house was in awful shape when I got home July 10th. Mary likes to work outdoors better than in the house, & appearances never did bother father. I spent 4 solid weeks of 11 hr. days in cleaning, painting, scrubbing, etc. It is impossible to find a person out there to do any work. Father had every room in the house & all the chairs buring with pamphlets & books & empty envelopes, etc which nobody could touch but me. I also ran the Ford to town every day to do the marketing & all the farm errands & milked 10 cows a day. You see the farm is too big for father, but it is an interest which means life & health for him to keep. There should be somebody on deck at home all the time to keep things up.
My cousin Lewis Richards, came on from Belgium in [...] to receive an honorary M.A. from Wesleyan. He is a pianist of some note, & was Mr. Hoover's 1st assist. in the B.C. during the war. He visited us for a few days. Augustus, Father & Lewis took an auto trip up to northern N.Y. I was away from home once during the summer, & then to go up to Lake Sunapee, N.H. to see a pt. for Dr. Meyer.
When I returned in Sept. I found Dr. Meyer in bed with a fractured foot from auto knocking him down in N.Y.C. The Clinic goes on 3 cylinders without him. He is around in a wheelchair now, but things are not the same.
Oct. 4th I went to N.Y.C. to read a paper before that International Conference of Women Physicians. Don't know how the old faeries [?] survived exposure to so much hot drought. My paper came at the end of the Psychoanalytic week - a sort of gastric crises of nausea & vomiting. I heard one man from Cornell talk for an hour on repression & could [not] understand a word of what he said. Mrs. Eleanor Roland Wernbridge sat next [to] me. She couldn't take in the stuff either, so I felt comforted. I had a bit of corresponding & wiring & talking with your friend Kristine Masse [?] & Eleanor Bertine. [?]
Shall be sending you a reprint of my Chronic Invalid article which appears in The Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry for Oct. Have abstracted it by request for the Bulletin & the Journal of Nervous & Mental Diseases for November. I had hoped to get out my school research work this summer, but now fear I cannot publish it before January. This teaching takes a lot of time, and this fall living arrangements are bearing down. Miss Meagher & I have the same quarters we had last spring & they are fine. Miss M. has charge of a ward in the Phipps & has hers from 7-1, & 4-7. This makes breakfast at 6.30, & dinner at 7.45. I get these meals & market for them. We get better food & it costs us a 1/3 less at least, but of course it takes time. Just now Mrs. Howard is struggling with coons, who offer spasmodically to clean house. When they don't show up I clean the rooms myself. It is good discipline for my housework-hating soul.
Augustus['] baby Richard Richards is down here in our baby hospital trying to grow. He was a premature child, is now 6 mos. & weights but 10 lbs. 3 oz. when he ought to weigh 12. A Holt's nurse has been fooling with him. Of course I couldn't say anything as long as Mrs. -- thought she was perfect, but when they finally did find her out the kid came down here. Marna [?] has gone back home & I am parent to the kid. - at least as much as he should have.
By the way, I got an endorsement preparatory service folder with an "X" marked opposite a statement to the effect that one M.D. was studying under a famous psychiatrist. I suppose it was meant for me, but who was father to that idea? Sounds like Miss Blakely.
Love to your mother & yourself,
As ever,Your Esther