»  Letter: Sunday, November 5, 1995

 

—————————

  Transcription of Letter

From
J.R. Derbyshire
Lister House, Kingsthorpe
105 Boughton Green Road
Northampton  England
NN4 7.SU.

To
John and L. Rose Derbyshire
15, Chestnut Street
Huntington  NY 11743
U.S.A.

Sunday  Nov.5^th 1995

My darling children, John, Rose, E & D.

Very quiet here, I expect there will be some Bangs^[1] later  quite a few last night! I'm told most people pool their money & go for large communal displays now, overseen by adults, much safer. One lad blew his hand off trying to make his own firework from some instructions he got from something called "The Net," whatever that is! It was lovely talking to John on Friday evening, but then I don't get to talk to Rose, so I'll write to you dear as long as I can, 'though my writing is now very poor, my eyesight poor & my right hand quite painful  gradually winding down altogether!!

This morning I spent putting the last two lots of pictures in my last album. I go through them all of course, quite amazing that Nellie is now almost 3. She is quite beautiful, so is Rose. Little Danny is a super baby. You are all so lovely & look so well & happy. Rose the children are a credit to you & John of course. I'm so proud of you all. Tess's little bump^[2] hardly shows but she seems well & happy. They have bought a new house & hope to move about the 11^th — a week today. Phil got up 5 am Monday to find his van gone, the police found it later, burned out. He was booked to go to Scotland that day, so had to get a taxi to his Depot. & pick up another van. They — that is — Jude & Marcus leave their cars outside the front. They take a risk of course just can't be bothered to use the garage at the back. The weather is really lovely  sunshine every day but getting colder & quite frosty early morning & night  Did I tell you John that Dot & Noel brought me a super knitted jacket last Saturday. My Xmas present but I almost live in it, it's so warm & cosy just what I needed. They also brought me fruit yoghurts & little trifles with real cream, so I made a pig of myself. I'm down to 9 stone 9 lbs^[3] but I'm glad, there's still plenty of me, especially with this alien^[4] on my tummy  I've had no results from the blood tests so presume everything O.K.    6.pm.  Sat on the edge of bed to answer the phone — M^rs Ives & promptly slipped off  I wasn't hurt in any way I just hit the bell with my stick & Peggy Mills[?]^[5] came & got help & they both hauled me up. We had a laugh anyway. Lots of love to you all, huggs & kisses for the children  Rose, John tells me the pumpkin went down well. Good little pumpkin.

           Love

               Mum  X X X
X X X X X X X