Name/Title
AU Selby, Grace May [Smith] - 1933-05-02 letter to Bertha Elizabeth (Lambert) HarrisEntry/Object ID
1990.1.511Context
Ozark, Illinois
May 2, 1933
Dear Aunt Bertha: There are so many depressing things to bear these days and you are always helping to bear others' burdens that it will be fine to write you some joyful news.
On April 14th, we received a letter from our long, lost son! It seemed like a message from the dead but a little photo enclosed showed him much alive and in better health than a year ago.
He is in Pocomoke City, Maryland on that strip of land down between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. He has been there since last July working for a man who operates two greenhouses. The work has been varied, interesting and apparently wholesome for him. It seemed very difficult for him to write as he felt terribly his great mistake. He said, “I am physically well but mentally sick, homesick, and longing so to see or hear from home.” He had gone to Florida a year ago, found work at packing tomatoes and worked at that up the east coast to Pocomoke. While there he stayed with Mr. Shear, the greenhouse man. When time came to move on he asked for a chance to help there and staid. He always wins his way like that wherever he goes. A second letter showed his great joy at hearing from us. He said he did not know why he left last year, that he was gone before he hardly knew what he was doing and then felt he could not face the embarrassment of returning. Now he seems to realize his trouble and is seeking to overcome it. Philip planned to drive from Western Penn. to see Homer last week end and we are eager to hear from him. As we read of some of the dangers he had escaped and how he has seemed to be led as he has, we could realize how wonderfully God has answered our prayers tho the year seemed quite a long testing of our faith.
How are all of your dear ones? Are you keeping well as usual? I have thought often of the Seminary and do hope it has been able to carry on. I'd love to send a few thousand for it but sometimes have to scramble for a postage stamp, especially since banks closed and ours has not yet opened. Somehow, we have kept the children in school. Elisabeth is in college at Carbondale. Malcolm is in Chicago University. I long to hear from Aunt Carrie as a roundabout message said they were coming home. I'm so thankful to have seen you last summer.
Yours with love,
Grace S. Smith
