Letter from Mrs. Martin to her brother Isidore CF 53
March 6, 1870.
I received your last letter and I promise you that I will put into practice all the good advice you give me. I am all the more disposed to it because I continually reproach myself for the death of my little Hélène; but I was a hundred leagues from thinking of such a denouement; I saw Pauline and Léonie so seriously ill when they were little, and then recovered very well, that I was no longer afraid of children's illnesses. But now it will be quite the opposite and I am even afraid of pushing my fear too far as soon as I see the least thing about them.
You tell me to change doctors, but which one to take? I tried Doctor P. for Léonie, seeing that MD didn't order me anything. He gave me a new prescription every day: the more the child took her remedies, the worse she got. He had to give it up. I took the first doctor who told me to leave all the medicine, because the child was too young, and there was nothing to do, except not to give him too strong food . I believe he was right. I had such contradictory experiences for my second baby boy. Finally, I have nothing to reproach Doctor D. for the disease of the little one. My dear friend, I have for all my life to mourn my little Hélène!
Now Léonie has had eye pain for nearly two years. If you know of a remedy, please let me know. God grant that it is more effective than those used so far! This poor child worries me, for she has an unruly character and an undeveloped intelligence.
As for me, I am not valiant. For a fortnight the fever has not left me; Thursday evening, I was so ill that I thought it was over, it seemed to me that I had the same illness as my little Hélène.
Louis went to Le Mans on Tuesday to see the children; I had promised them so long ago. Because of the death of our darling, he did not want to travel, but I decided, they would have been too sad. They cried a lot for their little sister.
In April, I'm going to take Céline out of nanny, it will console us a little to have her here, because all summer long, I won't have the courage to go out except to go to the cemetery. Besides, I can't make up my mind to see only a child by my side in the streets. Give me your opinion about Céline, she will be one year old on April 28th. I don't think it would do him any harm to wean her, especially since the nurse makes her eat everything and the child is doing very well.
I embrace all three of you with all my heart.
