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To Florence & family Sunday afternoon Oct 3rd 1937

Well dear girl here I come at last to rite you a letter got most of my work that was urgent done of course I am buissy all the time I have to be my work keeps me company I never get lonesome I wasent well all summer till the last month I weighed a hundred & 14 lbs the fore part of the summer then I began to loose weight & got sown to 90 lbs & stayed that way for over 2 months & I got so weak I could hardly get around I eat hearty enough but it dident do me eny good dident give me eny strength I needed a tonic but wasent able to get out & get the roots to fix up a tonic finily got out & got some roots that I knew was good & I went to taken it & in 3 days I was feeling better & I just kept on feeling better & went to gaining weight I gained 13 lbs in 4 weeks of course I had a lot of work to do taken care of my

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Fruit I dident pick eny Huckelberries this summer did want eny if I had been able to pick them have got some I canned 2 years ago I don’t never eat them don’t care for them I never open a can unless some one comes that lik them don’t care much for eny kind of canned stuff although I can a lot of stuff I have got over a hundred & fifty pints that ive canned this summer & fall & I made 7 galons of peach butter & lots of jell & preserves there was lots of wild grapes right here clost & they were fine larger then most of the tame grapes I made quite a lot of jell & made some grape butter oh ive got so much stuff put up & no one to eat it but myself & Ill not eat it in 4 or 5 years if I live that long ive got jell I made the first year I was here & ive been here 6 years will be the 25th of this month well I went to the spring then I fed & watered my chickens then got my kindling for the stove

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Then carried wood for morning then I ate my super I had peas & tomatoes & okra for my diner & appel pie oh I eat hearty & I am not loosing weight I weighed a hundred & 5 lbs about 10 days ago & I am still taking my root tonic & I sleep good but I work aplenty & I havent pieced a quilt block this summer but am going to finish one I have started got it about half done & I call it the triangle star I desined the patteren myself & named it pieced one for Edith & she was might proud of it of course she furnished the scraps I think a scrap quilt is pretty if you arange the colors in an artistic way ive had a dozen different ones I tell me I was an artest when it come to piecing quilt scraps well it cloudy & gloomy rained most all night just a slow drizzly rain oh I caught a little water

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When it rains & I can catch water it saves me from carring so much & it isent so easy a job eather up hill all the way with a bucket of water there was 4 days at a time I wasent able to go to the spring I was so weak I was afraid to try to go to the spring for fear I would colaps on the way oh ive had some awfull times since ive been living here all alone it wouldn’t be so bad if I had eny neighbors but the people that live here on the ridge are all a lot of selfish beings & I wont asociate or have eny thing to do with them my clostest neighbor lives a mile & three quarters from me I wuld have lots of good neibors well this is Monday morning don’t think the mail man is coming its now 20 minutes after ten oclock & he hasent come

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So I will rite another page or two I can think of a lot to rite but I sit down to rite I cant think of so much mabe I will get this finished & mail it out in the morning today is the 4th guess it’s a legal holiday well the mail mad did come by & I got a letter from Eidth she said they were al well but Harry & he could sit up in a chair she said his leg was awful painful you no he got his leg broken 2 weeks ago last Friday at first the doctor put his leg in a steel cast then Saturday he toot the steel cast off & put a plaster cast on I guess he is getting along as well as could be expected I wuld of liked to of went to see him but I hate to ride those busses they are in a reck ever little while a person never knows when hs is safe when he gets on one so I am playing safty first

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When your uncle john got bad & aunt alice didn’t think he could live but a short time she got one ove her neighbor men to come after me & he drove a big truck & I rode in it but he is a careful driver & he knocks on the door I went to the door & opened it & he said hello aunt mary it gave me such a shock I couldn’t speak so he said you don’t need to look me as if you dident know me & well it gave me a shock for I reaisded you had bad news & he said yes mr. Garner is awful low I dought if he is alive by the time we can get there I told him I would go back with him that I was sick my self dident no whether I could stand the trip or not that was Monday about 11 oclock & I stayed till Thursday evening Leslie my

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Nephew brought me home I dident stay for the funeral & buriel they dident burry him till Friday evening the reason I dident stay I had left my chickens shet up in the yard & no one to feed & water them but they were all all right still had water in their pan of course they stoped laying not being fed & it was over a week before I got them laying again well I got there in time he rcognised me & he said its mary alice was so glad that he knew me & new I had come to see him he seemed so glad to see me he took hold of my hand & held it for the longest time but when he droped off in a stupper he relaxed his hold on my hand poor old brother he suffered a lot in the last year & a half so I couldn’t grieve for I knew he was at rest

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It’s a debt we all have to pay sooner or later & its wicked & sinful to grieve for the ones that’s departed & gone the good book sais you should grieve at a birth & rejoice at a death of course I grieved for alice & Florence & Lesley they took it so hard charly dident there in time so see him alive he dident get there till Thursday morning he lives in Oregon I don’t know what part but its where but its where they raise fime appels well dear georgie left here Monday evening for Oregon she come & spent part of the day with they were driving through in a car & alma was driving the car she left a lot of stuff with me that they couldn’t take the car would just barely hold the family it small car with a rumbel seat in the back she has been gone a week today it was about sundown when they started alma said he was

[Page] 9 Going to drive all night said he was going drive most of the time one nights there would less trafic on the roads he thought it would be safer they said would drop me a postal every 2 or 3 day but I havent got a scratch from them it makes me worry some but she told me not to worry she thought they would get along all o.k. well I am going to have to stop you will get tired a reading my rubbish & by the way I have got lots of pretty fall flowers all over my front yard & back yard to oh ive got all kinds & they are pretty to but the grasshoppers is so bad they are eating on some of them now you tell Leroy he don’t need to furnish eny thing towards the making his quilt I will furnish

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Everything & make him a quilt & I am going make Ruth a quilt to I have made all of georgies girls a quilt for each one of them & I furnishd every thing I have made quilts for Edith & Harry & for Joe & Elsie but she furnished every thing & I done the work & ive made them ruggs so you see I have been buissy all the time I love to be doing something that’s useful to some one well I will quit for this time hope this finds you all well I am feeling very well still able to walk to town the 2 miles & 3 quarters & I am as ever with love & best wishes for all from Mother Cole