A letter from my great-grandmother

came to light yesterday. 

Brother Cat has been clearing the Senior Cat's woodworking shed. This time around he has been putting the heavy machinery on two trailers and tomorrow, with a good friend, he will transport it back to his home in another state. 

It was behind this he found a box that has most likely not been opened for at least half a century and probably longer. In the box there were some small tools - and an old fashioned tin "cash box".

Brother Cat thought there was nothing inside this but opened it to be sure. He found something that, for us, is treasure. There were several legal documents, two house deeds, a notice of death duties payable and my paternal grandfather's birth certificate. And one personal item, a letter from my paternal great-grandmother to my paternal grandfather.  It is dated 17th August 1932.

In historical terms I realise that this is not so very old but, for the clan, this letter is of huge significance. Great-grandma had immense influence on the family, so much so that there are still vestiges of it today.  

She was a "crofter's" daughter from Caithness. She married her brother's best friend after our great-grandfather travelled back to Caithness to tell the family that their son and brother had been lost at sea. The Navy had already sent a message of course but our great-grandfather used his leave to go and see the family. He fell in love with our great-grandmother - and the rest is not so much history as all of us. 

By 1932 Great-grandma had been a widow for almost a decade. They had, after my great grandfather retired from being a ship's pilot and maritime cartographer, moved to a small place on the banks of the Murray River and started another life as dairy farmers. When my great-grandfather died suddenly my great-grandmother simply went on with the farm. She knew what to do. She had been brought up to do that work.

And the letter is about several of the cows not producing well. She has decided to sell them and invest in more. There are two cheques attached to the letter. Neither of them has been cashed although she asks my grandfather to do this. Why he didn't do this we will never know. There would have been good reason not to do it although it would not have been for lack of funds. The passbook she held jointly with him has more than adequate funds in it. She was actually very comfortably off.

Her writing is very legible - and would have been dip pen and ink. Her language is clear and concise. For someone who  was only able to have the  bare minimum of schooling it is remarkable. She was apparently a constant letter writer - at least once a week to all of her children who lived too far away to speak to face to face. They were expected to write back too. Sadly those letters have been lost but this one remains.

Curiously it begins with the salutation, "My darling son B..... " and ends with her, "With love from your loving mother..." and then she signs it with her initial and surname. It's a little oddity, perhaps of the times but perhaps also of her strict Presbyterian outlook on life.

I will take it when I next go to see the Senior Cat. He is going to be fascinated.