Letter from Mrs. Martin to her brother Isidore CF 41
October 1868.
I come from the cemetery; this is my walk every Sunday. My father follows me everywhere, I seem to see him suffer. I offered for him all the satisfactory works that I could achieve during my life and all my sufferings; I even made the heroic vow in his favour; for me, when I am in Purgatory, I will do my time.
So I think that the violent toothache I've been suffering from for several days will relieve it. My God ! how annoyed I am to suffer! I have no courage for a penny. I'm getting impatient with everyone, that's a great satisfaction for my dear father!
I am overwhelmed with work at the moment. I sold beautiful footage and received more than forty meters of order. I have, among other things, an order for twenty meters which is very difficult to make, it is a drawing of one hundred and eighty francs per meter, to be delivered by December 25.
My maid being sick, I had to take someone to replace her. This person has been there for five days, she is stealing from me, I am sending her back this evening. So I'm very embarrassed. (It's the young girl of nineteen that I wanted to send to you, I did well to try her). I am going to stay alone for eight days, that is to say without a servant; mine is going to rest with her parents. I think I will have to choose another one. It pains me; reliable people are so rare, even like mine who doesn't have all the qualities; Finally, I hope she gets better!
I'm afraid that all these details don't interest you much, that's okay either; but me, they worry me and that's why I'm telling you about them.
When you write to me, you will give me great pleasure, it is one of my best joys on earth. I have lost some of those I loved, and those who are far away and with whom I can only speak by letter console me with their news.
Did you take the picture that my sister had sent to my father, fifteen days before his death, where she had written: "Dear father, death is a sleep" (Here is the complete text written by Sister Marie-Dosithée on this image: “Dear Father, death is a sleep, it is the end of the day when the soul will receive the price of its work, it is the end of exile where the child finds a tenderly loved Father. "). If you took it, you're not embarrassed, I looked for it everywhere. So you had to tell me. If you have it, keep it or send me half! If you don't have it, tell me, so that I can look for it again.
