Dear Son

We are all well and wishing you a happy birthday. Me and your Dad are finding the house too quiet for our liking. Your Dad says the university is as dead as the town. They have turned his college into a hospital now but they have kept him and the other porters on I’m glad to say. He has a joke with the young lads brought in and they give him some of their smokes. He always asks if they know you (none have yet).  The nurses take their breaks in the porters lodge which is good company for your Dad. He says the rumours about nurses being wild aren’t true: they work very hard and only want to go back to their quarters and sleep when they have time off. He will find it hard when the undergraduates return but he says having you back will make up for that.

I went to see your Auntie Ivy last week, she read my tea-leaves. She saw that you were distant but I didn’t think much of that as she knows you’re in France. I said I’d be pleased if she could tell me exactly where you are, but I just got one of her looks. She told me you would return but you wouldn’t be the same. That made me think of our chat when you were on leave about not following your Dad into the college after all. Well, I don’t mind if you can earn your living another way. We would have loved to see you set up in a trade or even educated if we had had the money.  I can make it alright with Dad, he’ll just be glad to have you back again.

Lottie is quite alright. She finds home dull without her brothers but she is all set on having a good time when she leaves school in the summer. We now think she won’t have to go into service as there is the chance of a job in a shop on Cowley Road. The shopkeeper’s son was to have it but he has gone off to fight. I’d prefer her to stay at home.  I hated leaving home so young when I went into service and so did Elsie. And she is company for us, with you and John gone.

I am sending some socks for you that Lottie has knitted at school. They are so thick I don’t reckon any bug could get through them.

Best love

Mum

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