July 9, 1943. In a letter from home, the Murawski brothers are updated on the status of their mother’s dental health and more news about their baby niece’s antics. But first, Anna gets down to some business. She has been following up on the background checks that the Army has been performing on Dad. Apparently Dr. Derkowski has already completed the forms and sent them back. Despite Dad’s insistence in a prior letter that the checks are related to his current and possible future duties in the Ordnance group, Anna still holds out hope that the checks mean that her baby brother will be considered for an Army Intelligence job. After all, “it is good paying and interesting work. You get to check up on different people and their activities” She encourages him to forget about getting into radio. “I don’t think that they will take you in radio because from the looks of everything it seems that they don’t think you are fitted for it because if you were they would have put you into it already. Don’t feel bad over what you can’t get but be glad for what you can get.”
As far as the news about mama’s teeth, “Mama will have the remaining 3 teeth pulled out the 27th of July” From here, Anna moves on to the latest news about the baby. “You should see boys how little Terry can strut around the house on her two tiny feet. Mama puts a towel under her arms and puts her on the floor and she walks. I knew that mama had been teaching her all along how to walk but I was certainly surprised when I put her down on the floor and she started to step her little feet back and forth through the house.”
Pretty soon Anna will learn to close the bathroom door when she’s in the tub. At one point Anna was taking a bath when the baby “came by the bathroom door…and saw me in the tub. Right away she turned herself and her feet into the bathroom and came to the tub and her little head just reached to the edge of the tub and she stood there looking at me and smiling for all she was worth and saying ga ga and da da. Gee she was so cute and adorable.”
Anna also tells of how the baby enjoys the novelty of being able to stand and move about on her feet. “When little Terry lays on the bed and gets tired of it she starts to scream and throw herself up on the bed so when we come to her and say “Daj Raczki” (give me your hands) her little hands shoot out so quickly. When you take her hands and raise them she jumps right up on her feet to a standing position and stands there looking into your face and laughing. She doesn’t even know how to get up to a sitting position unless we pick her up and set her down on the bed or in her chair… She simply loves to stand and walk. It is something new to her and she likes it.”
Anna then moves to a reflective mood as she considers that someday they may have another child “sooner or later so that Terry can have a playmate.” She then remembers growing up with her two brothers. “Remember how we three used to play and fight together and I am sure we love each other together even across thousands of miles. Believe me brothers when I say that I love you. I always had a very soft spot in my heart for you boys but it took this stinking war to bring it to the surface. I wish even right now as much as you do that you were here again to fight together and to have fun also because we don’t intend to quarrel all our lives”
An undated pre-war photo. L-R: Anthony Murawski, Edward Lubinski, Anna Lubinski (nee Murawski), unknown, Stanley Murawski. Given that this photo is undated I am not sure if Anna and Eddie are married at this time. Anna recalls in her letter “how we three used to play”.
In other news from home
- Joe Miller is expected home on furlough on July 13th.
- Billy is in the hospital. After he recuperates he expects to be sent “someplace in Mississippi”.
Having “covered the home front”, Anna signs off “till another time.”