From Sister Marie‑Dosithée Guérin to Mr. and Mrs. Guérin.
December 30, 1868.
V. + J.
From our Mother of Le Mans
(2r°] I don't want to let these beautiful Christmas celebrations pass without saying a few words to you: first of all to thank you for the 4 bottles you sent me, they worked wonders, the hands of Sr Marie Joséphine are cured, if you could tell us remedies as effective as this for all illnesses, you would be doing us an immense service, we would not have so many sick people and would not lose so many sisters.
I look forward to hearing from you soon, I hope it will be good. Marie and Pauline would have liked to see you and their little cousin but I hope that in a few months we will see you all. Zélie is to come on Wednesday (January 6; in fact, Mrs. Martin is coming on December 31) to pick up her children, poor sister, I am waiting for her impatiently, she is well at the school of the cross; his little Hélène had measles: it's a minor illness which is nothing in itself but it has caused such serious accidents that I fear for the child; considerable vomiting of blood is not a trivial thing especially at that age; I hope you will have more happiness with your children than she has with hers.
[2 v°] Marie and Pauline had a great time writing to you, I had to give them some gold paper, they found it essential; I have not corrected their faults so that you can judge what they know. Marie hardly makes any spelling mistakes since I explained certain rules to her, I will also explain them to Pauline but it is still too early, she would not understand anything, but I find that she naturally has a lot more style as Mary; she is so naive this little one that she delights everyone; she would have liked to be a child of Jesus at Christmas, but there was no way; she hasn't had the rosette for 5 weeks, she's too lively and restless, if by misfortune the mistress leaves her for a moment without work, she can't stand it any longer, she's gone; she does like her dear godfather (Mr. Guérin) who, on days out, went to take inventory of the whole house, opening all the drawers and cupboards, poking around and turning everything upside down, uncorking the bottles; I don't know if you remember, one day when you had uncorked a bottle of alkali, the smell so strong made such an impression on you that, rushing towards us with a terrified air, you exclaimed: it's over, I am dead! but alas why do my memories go back to the past, how many voids have been created! The dear Father and Mother who lived only for us are in their eternity and we ourselves are rushing there with great strides! In the meantime, dear brother and dear sister, let us try to use the best time we can so as not to have useless regrets at our last hour and for that I wish that the new year which is about to begin and which could well be the last be good and very good not according to the maxims of the world but according to God and for that I will not let a day pass without recommending you to NS
[2v° tv] My health is good except for a cold, but that's nothing (Sister Marie‑Dosithée is affected by a slowly developing form of tuberculosis). I kiss you with all my heart, I would like to give a New Year's gift to my dear little Jeanne and as that is not possible for me, I will ask NS to make up for it.
Your affectionate Sr.
Sr. M. Dosithee Guérin
of the Von Ste Marie
DSB
