RA Mitchell Family Remembrances
As a boy and young man I never thought too much of my step-mother. But I tell you I take off my hat to her for the way she managed to bring up her children. Left a w... View moreRA Mitchell Family Remembrances
As a boy and young man I never thought too much of my step-mother. But I tell you I take off my hat to her for the way she managed to bring up her children. Left a widow six children from ten to two years of age with nothing to keep them on she kept a little store and did other small things. Then when in Guelph her eldest boy Andrew got work in Raymond's sewing machine factory at three dollars a week. In the evenings he used to draw designs on linen, which his mother tramped about the city and the surrounding country and sold. Andy was only about 14 or 15 years old then.
Elinor used to stay for some time with her Aunt in Norfolk and Eva also stayed with Aggie. Aggie was my eldest sister, lame, and having nothing to keep her but a knitting machine and her needle. Yet she was ready to take in one of the girls. At the time I was drawing what was considered a pretty good salary for a teacher of my grade and was spending it on bicycles, etc., while those I might have helped were in dire need. Yet Mrs. Mitchell was always picking up some 'poor' person to help along. It is in the folks who have the hardest time to live that you often find the greatest sympathy and helpfulness. What there is to learn 'in the short and simple annals of the poor'.
The spring before I went to China, Bessie died of t.b. at the age of 16. She was a lovely girl. Apart from her the others are all alive. Andrew is a genius in his art and his family is just overflowing with music. His whole life is absorbed in his religion and his efforts to put men forth into the foreign field where his second son is. Eva, a nurse, who some years ago seemed nervously broken down has recovered and is busy with seventy-five delinquent boys. Loren, a fine all round man is head of the physical training in the high schools of Los Angeles. Eleanor is the trusted secretary of the work among the Mexicans in the Methodist Church in Los Angeles. She cared for her Aunt during her old age and now for years she has been caring for her mother who is now ninety-one and in physical good health but mentally incoherent. Sue has had an invalid husband for five or six years, unable to do any work, and in the midst of it she had cancer of the breast and had to have all the breast and the great muscles of the side removed. Yet she is a teacher in a fashionable private school in Pasadena where they require their teachers either to attend summer schools or travel. She is as cheery as if she never had a trouble in the world.
As I said before I take my hat off to Mrs. Mitchell for the way she took up her burdens and raised her family. It was no easy road that she had to go and she did not lose her cheeriness throughout it. I have rambled on for considerable time on the subject of the family and perhaps you are not particularly interested in it. Every little time Sue would ask me something about my own life and bring up some tradition or other about my early days which usually needed some correction before it approached very near to the truth. As she was interested in my past I thought that you folks might not be uninterested in some of our connections. They have all been back but Elinor and Eva. I expect that Elinor will never get a chance so long as her mother lives. But the two of them may get a chance to get over some time.
Now it is about time for me to close off. The reception of the news from London was not good tonight. I could not distinguish what was being said a good part of the time. Miss Kate Faris phoned up this evening to ge some news as she was writing to Don Faris' mother. As mother was not here I tried to give her what I could and not to unnecessarily arouse alarms. It is serious enough. One can always feel that the very worst is a possibility. But there are a great many other possibilities also and we need not dwell on the worst, which is no more likely than something better.
Love to you in your varied circumstances. I am glad you had a time together. I hope that you both enjoyed it.
Dad
