Marie opens this letter to her mother by saying how little time she has had to write due to the fact that the hospital is so understaffed. She is clearly finding the work very hard and she refers to a patient of hers who had earlier died from dysentery and another who is very ill and she had written to his mother in Canada. She also tells her mother trivial things such as how most of the patients on the blue ward wear blue pyjamas. She takes a break from writing the letter and finishes on the 22nd November when she writes that her friend, Mr Boase, is returning to England and he will post the letter from there.