Letter from Mrs. Martin to Mrs. Guérin CF 51
12 February 1870.
I'm sorry to know you're sick. It's very boring for you to be confined to bed like this, but take courage, it's only a few weeks to pass; you must be careful and not tire yourself, because you are not strong at all.
I'm not very well either, I've often had a fever for six weeks, but I haven't stopped; I do my work as usual, I have even gotten up every morning at half past five, for more than a fortnight, to go to Saint-Léonard to hear Capuchins who were giving a mission; it's over today and I'm not sorry, because it's very cold.
I rejoice, my dear sister, thinking that next August we will each have a little boy, at least I hope so. But, girl or boy, we will have to take with gratitude what the good Lord gives us, because he knows better than we what we need. What saddens me is thinking about putting my child to nurse again, it's so hard to find good people! I would also like to have the nanny with us, but it's impossible, I already have enough people! Finally, I think the good Lord will help me, he knows very well that it's not laziness that prevents me from feeding my children because I don't fear my pain.
I was talking about you yesterday to Mrs. Y. She finds you very happy and tells me that she would like to be in your place. There are some who advise her to take a trip to Lourdes to obtain the grace to have children, but she declares that she does not want to, because she would be afraid of having too many, and, as she loves her child very much. pleasure, she would rather have none at all than be a slave. Her sister-in-law has been dangerously ill for several weeks and is causing the greatest concern.
So you see, my dear sister, that there are sorrows for everyone, the happiest are only the least unhappy: the wisest and simplest thing in all this is to resign oneself to the will of God and to prepare in advance to carry his cross as courageously as possible.
I am going to write to the Visitation and ask my sister and the little girls to pray for you, so that everything goes well. I wish I could be useful to you and console you; unfortunately, I can't. Finally, I will pray for you, so that the good Lord heals you and gives you a child who will be your joy, like your little Jeanne.
I expect to hear from you towards the end of this week; I beg you, tell Isidore that he won't fail to write to me and above all that he respond to everything I asked of him in my letter last week. He always forgets half of it...
My little Hélène is neither worse nor better.
