[Almost no punctuation in the letter, though it's usually pretty clear where sentences begin and end. I added all the paragraph breaks and some capitals at the beginning of sentences for ease of reading.]1899
South Hadley Falls
Oct 28th
My Dear Fannie
I received your letter yesterday - was very glad to hear from you, havethought a good deal about the Greenwich friends lately and intended to write soon as possible, but my writing letters is a very slow process. You have thought perhaps you might see me in G--h[.] Fannie dear I am not able to spend a single night away from my own rooms. Genia has invited me up to her house for a few dya.s Nellie too wants me to visit her in Suffield but I have to say No. I was so completely worn out when my dear husband passed away that I do not regain much strength as yet[.]
The story of the last few weeks of your uncle's life would not be an easy one to tell. His growing weaknes[s] and my failing health, with the extreme heat of our rooms seems like some pitiful troubled dream to me now. he was too weak to go down into the yard for fresh air and he was not willing to have me out of his sight and I left him very seldom[.] For some weeks I feared that I should be the first to go. But thank God I was with him to the end. If he had lived another week I think I should have been laid aside with nervous prostration, and that would have been so hard for my dear love[.] He depended on me so much, thought no one could care for him but me but all that is now over and he is at rest.
I was very glad that so many of you his relatives could come to his funeral. Wish I could have said more to each of you but I really knew very little of what passed around me that day, felt stupified sick with sorrow. Why only last Sunday I asked Genia if she had a chance to speak with her cousins and how many carriages were there[.] I did not see any but the one I was in, it was so nice that all his children could be there, they were very kind to me. Everett as the eldest son told me they knew my care had prolonged their Father's life and that I should be cared for. He and Addie write me such nice letters.
I have had so many letters (some of them very beautiful) well I have had all these to answer[.] Cousin Addie Johnson of Keene first sent a paper containing the notice of her brother Lorenzo's death and has since sent a letter but did not say whether she attended the funeral. Did Ezra and Mary go. Eight years ago your Uncle and I with Ezra and Mary had a very pleasant visit at his home in Petersham.
Sunday Morning
I should like to hear from your home this morning. No wonder you are tired out. And I pray you may have strength to endure to the end and the poor old Father[.] How sorry I am for him[.] It is hard to live to be so helpless, but all we can say is God's will be done. How many times the last few months his brother "Milton" has spoken of him and Uncle Lyman and wished that he might see them once more, but it was not to be. Does your Father seem to rally from the effects of that fall, or does it seem likely to hasten the end[?] Is Joseph's back better[?] Sometimes such hurts are very serious and I must think Harrison had a merciful escape that his face was not disfigured for life[.] It might even have destroyed his eyesight.
Dont get discouraged even if the work on the new kitchen is not begun this fall[.] Just put the matter, with all your hopes and wishes into the hands of your loving Saviour[.] Remember he said - "Your father knoweth ye have need of all these things." Just now he has put upon you the sad and mournful duty of caring for the old Father's last days. That duty ended he will lead you in some other direction even now. Give thanks for the love that blesses your life, for home[,] husband, and dear children[.] Think what it would be to bear the heavy burden alone as I had to[.] I was alone with my husband and watched him "drooping earthward" day by day. After the noise and heat of the 4th of July he could not rally, 1st of August I sent Everett word[.] He came and staid 2 days, that was all.
I am living alone, expect to as long as I can pay the rent[.] Suffer very much some days from stomach and heart trouble[,] have had an attack of dysentery lately had to send for the Doctor[.] He has given me a nerve tonic he thinks may strengthen me but my life has been so poured into that of my dear husband to cheer and comfort him, and to prolong his life, that now there seems to be nothing to fall back upon, but it is all right. God knows just when the call will come, and the blessed word is - "He careth for you[.]"
This letter must answer for you and Mary for the present, but tell her I should like to hear from her, and what she knows of Lorenzo West's last days, think I may have heard but have forgotten[.] Is the present wife his first, and the mother of his children or was he twice married.
Now I must close, God be with you and comfort and sustain[.]
With kind love to all
from Aunt Hannah