Letter from Mrs. Martin to Mrs. Guérin CF 65
5 may 1871.
...I'm very glad you're happy with the maid I sent you. I would love to have a similar one for myself, but unfortunately this is not often encountered; she had promised to write to me in three weeks and did not keep her word. You tell him that it will probably be me who will take Mrs. S's little package to him. I have wanted to see you for a long time. I will never be more free than I am now. I would therefore like to take the opportunity to go and spend a few days with you.
I'm glad my brother insisted on that in his last letter, that decides my husband who doesn't like to see me go. I prefer to go now rather than on vacation. It's not the turn of the eldest, but of Léonie and Céline. Can you imagine that I dream of taking them both. The little one is so nice that I find it hard to part with her. That would be all I had to do with taking her out and caring for her with your little Jeanne. We will go to the Jardin de l'Etoile (beautiful urban park, located near Les Buissonnets, where Thérèse very often played in her childhood. It has since been divided into housing estates, and built), finally I make a party of it, as if I was a child.
Louis tells me it's madness to take the little one; I think he is right, I could regret it. She is not difficult to look after, but ordinarily a child of twenty-five months is hardly reasonable. However, she is cute, if you only knew! I never had one like it to be attached to me; however strong his desire to do something, if I tell him that it pains me, at the very moment it ceases.
When we put her in her toilet to go out, she is very happy. It is above all his beautiful white hat that occupies him, but when it is time to leave, if I say to him with a sad air: “So you are going to leave me? Right away, she leaves the maid, comes to my side, kisses me with all her might. — “No, no, not to leave Mama; go away…” she said to the servant. Then, when I happily tell her to leave, she looks me in the eye to see if it's really true that I don't have any more pain, and starts jumping with happiness.
She had measles three weeks ago and was very ill for five days. I was very afraid of losing her; several children here have died of it. Now she's healed, but she's still coughing a little; then she looks less good. Marie and Pauline also had the same illness at the Visitation. When they returned on April 10, Marie had already had a bad cold for two days. I said to their father, “Believe me, let's not send them away; Marie has a bad cold, she will be put in the infirmary as soon as she arrives. He wanted them to leave anyway, saying it was nothing.
M. Romet had taken it upon himself to drive them to Le Mans, I had only been as far as Alençon station. Coming back, I noticed that my little Céline already had a few spots of measles and I thought: “Here's what Marie is going to have and it will be quite a business at the Visitation. " I was not wrong. On arriving, Marie had a fever, they put her to bed, she was very ill for three days, the doctor was called. He found that she only had a rash, measles that came out badly, like she had had six years ago. Finally, on Friday, she was cured, and she soon resumed her studies.
On Sunday, my sister wrote to me that they had been on the point of dismissing the whole boarding school, five had been taken with measles, as well as Pauline, and it was Marie, supposedly, who gave her to the others. Pauline hardly got sick from it, but that doesn't prevent her from spending three weeks in the infirmary and we regret not having done the same for Marie. Another time, their father, who is sorry, will not be caught sending them back with a cold!
I see, my dear sister, that you are still expecting a child; I am worried about your health. But in the end, the good Lord never gives beyond one's strength. I have seen my husband torment himself on this subject many times for me, who remained perfectly calm; I said to him: “Don't be afraid, the good Lord is with us. I was, however, overwhelmed with work and worries of every kind, but I had this firm confidence of being supported from on high.
Hearing me talk like this, a friend said to me: “The good Lord no doubt saw that you could never get away with raising so many children, and he put four of them in his Paradise. But to be honest, that's not how I understand it. Finally, the good Lord is the Master and he didn't have to ask my permission. On the other hand, until now, I have borne all the fatigues of motherhood very well, entrusting myself to his Providence. Besides, what do you want? we are not on earth to have great pleasure, those who expect to enjoy are very wrong and are famously disappointed in their hopes; we see this every day and sometimes, in a very striking way.
Last week died, in our street, a little boy of eleven, who was the happiness of his parents; he was charming in body and mind; they still have a nice little girl of twelve who is going to have the same fate, she is at all ends. Here are very rich people, who have just bought a fine house to retire from business; what good is it, now that their existence is shattered? This will hardly interest you perhaps, my dear sister, but I like to talk with you about what strikes me.
I end by kissing you with all my heart, as well as your two beautiful little girls.
