Mullycarnon
Minterburn
Caledon June 8th, 1956
Dear Tom and Sara:
Had your letter about [??]. a man who was reared beside Tommy's farm here in Comber, (Greasons)
& who had a pub in America, or his uncle had rather, & him & another brother lived with him long ago, they both
came back, & the pub was sold out. Bartley Finnegan he was the highest bidder £900, & it fell down to him at that,
he would have given it back to us again but no one wanted it then. He is a R Catholic he has bought Lockhards below it now also,
& the meadows & Mick McVeighs that belonged to Lizzie Millar as well. He has 2 sons on it, & a big hay shed up
at the foot of the stalk yard garden, & a daughter & another son on the Police force & is a very nice man. I never
was past it & never will now, but its very nice. Lila Wilson says he asked me down, but I never got down.
I heard Eugene had turned his coat & is going to Chaple with his C wife, its awful what is turning here too. The C faith is
a [word unknown], if you are not married by a priest, in a C Church you aren't married at all, &
a woman is living up with her hubby as an harlot, & their children are illegitimate or bastards. I asked the girl here was that
true, & she said that is the Catholic Faith surely as if it was quite the right thing. She was a Catholic herself & was
brought up to think that was just the proper thing, isn't that awful. I never heard that 'till I was 82.
Minnie is dead years ago, about a few years before Best died, a lump on the bowel, same as Maria's Martha had. Minnie's
bursted & Martha's didn't, but its death in any case. Maria's son Jimmy is dead, cancer in the stomach, & Ryan
is dead, & Maria & Lila are in Kilearn living now. Marie is bad with high blood pressure now & on a diet
& has to take things easy. Lila said she will hardly live long either. She never was too strong, had a drapery shop
on the Shankhill in Belfast for 26 years, & had to come home again . The place is in grass, & does
[be] auctioned yearly. John and Joe are all that's alive. John's son Cecil has got a job in Canada
& will soon be Canadian now. He is an engineer & was in a big firm in Dublin. He must have got big pay in
Canada. He is married & has 1 son & John had 3 girls, one of them in a Solicitor office & 2 of them are
married. They were nurses & 1 is in the Royal a nurse the youngest. Joe's son Joe is still in Gillespies store in
Armagh & 2 at home with him & one a missionary in Brazil, S.A. & the girl Tillie is married & has
1 little girl, is in Derry [word unknown] with Diekson Orr's son Joe, my old sweetheart.
Dolly Wright is in Tower Hill Hospital & may never be out of it. She is shaking like a qua, with her nerves this
long time. Ernie married a typist in Belfast, she had twins, a girl & boy, the girl Rosemary is big now, but the
boy died when born. He is married now to Wm. Brady's only girl. She lost her first child, a girl of 7 months, it lived
a week & then died, except I would hear from someone I don't know or hear about Dolly, or Ernie & she
never writes to the Wilsons either (an odd fish).
I only have an odd letter from Lila & she tells me anything I hear, - I am still in bed & now Tommy is in
his bed in the other side of me. He had a bad cold, a flue of the worst type. He had the Dr. Doctors are all free now,
you have only to pay for the medicine, the girl I had from Middletown is in the Mental Hospital in Armagh. I had a
letter from her & one from the Dr there to tell me she is no better. She listens to imaginary voices, & then
gets restless. In response to these he said, she says to me, its only nonsence keeping me in here so long, but I
knew when she told me she had no glasses that she was still a bit heady. I have just wrote to her now. The Dr told
me he encouraged her to answer my letters. Its awful whats going crazy & what's turning their coats &
what's leaving for other countries. There will soon be nobody here at all, but they may all find a change. Far away
fields are green. 74 & 70, Tommy got for 2 cattle & not fully finished beef at that. Its terrible what things
may turn to. Everything is a terrible price, & butter sometimes over 4 shillings & tea 8 S, eggs are
£3 5½D per Doz, & milk 2.6 per gallon.
I can write no more this time. Love to you, Sarah, & all
Your loving cousin, Emily
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