Reference
AU10/148/1/4
Title
Letters from 1950s
Date free text
1950 to 1959
Production date
From: 1950 To: 1959
Scope and Content
Correspondence from Mary Pack in Canada to Lily Grimmer in Ampthill:
1951: One letter contained within a photographic Christmas card, showing a picture of the Lions Gate Bridge and Harbour in Vancouver. The letter sends Christmas greetings. Mary talks of getting older and greyer. She now works as the Executive Secretary of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society (CARS), travelling all over Canada and hosting fundraised balls and banquets. Her mother is still bedridden and her father is starting to have memory problems. In other family news: Harry and family are now living further up in British Columbia at Ocean Falls but they are building a summer house on Vancouver Island for retirement; Jessie's daughters (Mary Lou and Peggy (Joan)) are now 10 and 8; Roger and George are living in Vancouver and all their sons are well; Cecil is now holds a responsible position within the asbestos mine in Quebec, he and Joan are building their own home and their sons are doing well.
1955: One letter written in December. Mary has moved to an apartment by herself as her mother is now in a nursing home because of a deterioration in her illness and she has also had two severe heart attacks. [Her father is not mentioned in the present tense and it seems he may have died in the intervening years.] The Pack grandchildren are all growing up: Henry is at university in Ontario. Cecil and Harry's careers are going well and Mary herself is still travelling much, and is recovered fully after her heart operation. [This letter reads as if other letters have been sent to Lily in the years between 1951 and 1955 as some things written seem to be taken as already known. This letters are missing from the collection however.]
1956: One air mail letter dated December 8th sending Christmas greetings. Sadly there have been three deaths in the family this year: Mary's mother; Joan's husband Cecil in an unspecified accident; and George's wife Agnes. Joan has moved to Ontario with her youngest son to be nearer to Henry at university. She is training to be a stenographer. George and Bob (now 17) are coping as well as possible with Agnes' loss. Jessie and her daughters are all well, with the girls enjoying choir singing and folk dancing. Harry and Clara are back in Vancouver, with Bill at the university there. Mary is planning a visit to the UK and possibly Europe for 1957.
1957: Six letters and postcards, several written during Mary's European travels.
1) February 25th: a photographic postcard entitled "The Steeples", published by Donaldson's Studios of Cranbrook, British Columbia, franked Vancouver 8pm Feb 25 1957, with a 4c stamp. It tells Lily of Mary's arrival plans, landing at Prestwick on April 9th and planning to hire a car to drive around Scotland then driving south to England. Her eventual departure date will be May 28th.
2) March 31st: a letter written on Canadian Pacific paper advising of specific travel details, flying from Montreal to Prestwick with BOAC. Expects to be in Ampthill around April 16th, asking Lily to arrange some reunion with old friends and family and asking Lily if she'd like to come with her on some of her travels.
3) circa May 15th: a photographic postcard of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, published by Editions Chantal, 74 rue des Archives, Paris, with a 18franc stamp. Mary is enjoying all the sights of Paris.
4) May 24th: a letter written from Acton, West London. Mary is still enjoying her trip. She talks about having visited Ampthill and gives details of flight arrangements for her return to Canada.
5) May 28th: a photographic postcard entitled "Living Room, Shakespeare's Birthplace, Stratford-Upon-Avon", printed and published by Jarrold & Sons Ltd of Norwich, no. SP128, franked Acton W3 9:45am 28 May 1957, with a 2 1/2d stamp. It advises Lily of a change of flight details.
6) December: a small Christmas card sending greetings to all the Grimmer family, with thanks for all their hospitality in the summer, stating how much she enjoyed all the time and travelling spent with Lily. She has now got slides made of all the photographs she took on her trip.
1958: Two letters. The first dated January 6th, by airmail, thanks Lily for the present of a tray cloth. She expresses deep sympathy for the illness in the Grimmer family. She sends New Year greetings and tells how she has spent much of the Christmas holidays showing friends and family her slides of the photographs she took on her trip in the summer.
The second letter is dated December and is a Christmas card crafted by some of Mary's CARS patients, inspired by Native American designs. She continues to travel all over Canada with work. George and his wife have had a baby daughter and Bob has joined the Air Force. She is sending a gift of a tray cloth which has been designed and made by arthritis patients.
1959: One letter dated November 24th, thanking Lily for her present of a plant which arrived safely. She is finally sending copies of her European trip slides to Lily. Mary has been very busy with work this year as she has been helping to set up a research centre for rheumatic diseases in British Columbia, helped by Professor Jonas Kellgren of Manchester University. She sends sympathy for Mr Grimmer's worsening dementia and sends love and greetings to all the Grimmer family. In Pack family news: Joan has moved back to Vancouver; Henry is now a mining engineer working in Northern Canada; Jessie is well, her daughter Mary is at university and her daughter Peggy is on the school hockey team; Bill is studying to be a teacher.
Level of description
sub-file