Seward House
Badsey
Oct 20th 1916
My dearest Boo
I feel I’d like to write from the old house but am afraid I haven’t time to write a long letter because I must spend the greater part of my time with Mother. If you have received my last letter you will know that she has been staying at Badsey, on a week’s visit, which terminates on Monday. I ought to have gone back to hospital this afternoon but ‘phoned to Matron this morning and asked her permission to remain another night, as Mother is so unsteady on account of a letter she received from the American Embassy in Berlin that Cecil is not a wounded prisoner of war, and must therefore be believed to have been killed. The strain of the last 4 months has been almost unbearable, and although we’ve expected and feared the worst, yet the shock does not seem any the less when one hears definitely that we must give up all hope.
Wilfred is going out shortly and we are praying that he will do nothing rash, in order to avenge Cecil’s death. They were like David and Jonathan.
I hope to write another letter from hospital to catch this mail.
All my love
From
Your ever devoted
Mela
