1 3 rd August 1916 My very dearest Mother A thousand thanks
for your very nice long letter
dated July 28 th. I am delighted
to hear you are feeling quite
yourself again. I suppose this
will find you hard at work
at home again looking after the
family, who I hope are well.
How is my darling Andrew &
Desmond? also all the school
boys & Bee, tell her to write
me one of her nice cheery
letters with all her news &
ideas. Imagine I have never written 2 to M rs Sheil yet infact I have
given the Hocks away to some
of the men as we were very
short of note paper one day. I
must really try & write to her
to-day - You will be sorry to
hear my Tents 8 & 9 have been
closed again & my patients have
be moved down to Sy & I am
there again, it seems such a
pity as we have just got the
whole place straight & the tents
to look very nice, Matron even
remarked them to the Colonel
yesterday & we have only been
open a fortnight. On account
of this Diarrhea Epidemic we have
been unable to get convoy but
it seems to have fairly died 3 out again & we hope to start
taking convoys again next week
The poor patients were very sorry
leaving, I must say we were a
very happy party, the patients were
very nice, all Australians & the 2
orderlies quite nice men - We all had a terrible shock here
yesterday morning when two of
the Sisters were nearly drowned.
They went out Bathing after breakfast
& the tied was rather far
out but coming in & there is a
very dangerous channell which was
dry when the went out & filled
in very quickly, one onV the Sisters
got a very bad cramp so the
other went out to help her, I
may tell you neither of them could
swim, but unfortunately the one who 4 got the cramp was an ennormous
woman & the other small so that
the one pulled the other down
at last some people on the sand
heard the yells also one of the
patients undress & went in
also an orderly from the
Officer's Mess, he went out &
just found Sister Robinson in
time before she sank for the 3 rd
time & was her in thinking
she was the only one when he
felt something caught round his
legs & put down his hand to
find it was the other sisters hair
round his legs of course she was
pratically gone & they had to
do artificial respiration & gradually
got her round again, ofcourse both 5 their lungs are full of sand &
sea water, Sister Robinson is doing
fairly well but Sister Prisly is
having a hard fight, poor things
it is very sad, you can imagine
the shock we all got— It is a
great pity the beach is so dangerous
of course they were told not to
go out so far by another sister
that was bathing but they only
laughted at the idea. Thank the
Lord they were not drown & I
hope they will get on alright—
It may stop all the bathing which
will be a great pity as it is
very hot here lately & they do
enjoy it so much in their off
time but at the same time
I can quite understand, it is 6 a terrible worry & responsiblity for
Matron, when it is so dangerous—
I suppose you are having the same
glorious weather, it is terribly hot
here, I am only two delighted
to think I am not in Malta now
it must be terrible the heat, we
had a letter yesterday from one
of the Sisters, she says the heat
is over powering & that they
are terribly busy convoys of
fever from Solonika every day. I
hope you have had good news of
Tommy lately & that he does not
find the heat too much— Oh I
wish this war would end soon—
I am very sorry the hear about
Bernard & Dick O'Kelly & hope they
will soon get stronger all the same 7 I think they are well out of France
are all the others well I have been
meaning to write to M rs O'Kelly but
there always seems so much to
be done in off duty time but
now that my tent is fixed up
it ought to be alright— Will
you please thank Violet & Ethel a
thousand times for the books they
arrived quite safely & were a
real godsend. The garden must be looking
heavenly now, will all the flowers
& the Sweet Pea, is Henessy showing
anything at Kingstown this
year— How I often long to be
at home to enjoy it all but
at the same time it would be
very hard to remain at home &
see & know how short they are 8 for help out here & at home
I believe they cannot get enough
V.A.Ds & are taking people without
certificates at home now. No I have not heard anything
more of G. Grattan I intend writing
to find out how he is to-day
I wonder did he get home for
a rest by any chance — I hope
he did— How are all the relations
Granny, Aunt Lissy & Uncle Frank.
Now I must close as I want
to write to Tommy, did he ever
say he got the cake from
Busarch With every loving wish & thought
I remain
dearest Mother, your loving&
grateful daughter Marie 9 I am writing
to Switzers
to send me
out 2pr of
shoes as I
have worn 2pr
out already
& in the heat
& sand we
have to change
very often. I
Am also asking
them to send
bill as I
would like
to pay for
them
Marie