March 26, 1943. A letter from Anna to Dad. The baby is getting older (Theresa-Marie turned 5 months old the day before), mama continues to have dental problems and it is time for spring cleaning. Anna gets the medical report out of the way first. X-rays show that mama only has one good tooth with several abscess pockets and a low gum line. Mama is in general weak and poor health. “Dr. Derkowski says that mama is not quite strong enough for the extraction…he gave her some medicine for building her back up. Dr. Wheeler, the dentist, said that as long as she doesn’t feel well he will not pull the teeth until he has the Dr.’s OK.”
The amount of spring cleaning that they have to do has limited Anna’s letter writing time and she apologizes for not writing sooner. It’s also taking time away from other things. “Poor baby, all day long she lays all by herself because we have so much work and can’t play with her. She just plays by herself and fall asleep by herself.” In other news, Anna says that the baby continues to enjoy playing with the stuffed bunny that Dad had sent her. “I’ll say Theresa Marie showed “Bun-Bun” who is boss. Today she was kicking him till she kicked him off the bed and onto the floor. Poor rabbit.” Anna enclosed the Thank You note shown below from Theresa to her uncle:
A thank you note from 5 month old Theresa-Maire for a stuffed rabbit sent to her by her uncle PFC Anthony Murawski. Anna’s note on the back reads, “P.S. The kisses and note were written by Theresa Marie herself. I held her hand and she was writing.”
As far as the work around the house, “The past week I washed the closet under the stairs and the toilet walls. We painted the closet around the toilet and the toilet floor is getting scrubbed and varnished.” The bathroom walls first got a primer coat which “was very hard to put on as it was a base and kind of thick. The second one was OK. I painted until my arms were stiff and I couldn’t get up from bed the next day. Mama painted too and so did Eddie.” She says the work paid off, “the room looks all white and clean. Mama even scrubbed the bathtub and it looks so gleaming white.”
Anna mentions that Stanley is in Ephrata and that “We should all cheer up, shouldn’t we?” She says that Stanley could still get a furlough, but it would only be for 7 days. She suggests that Stanley could ask for a 14 day furlough, since she knows that Eddie’s cousin got 14 days when he came in for his uncle’s funeral. She then offers a scenario where maybe Stanley can fly east “on a bomber or army plane that was headed this way or towards New York. That would take 10 to 12 hours. Even if he couldn’t come all the way to New York State he could take a train the rest of the way. Going back he could ride by train about 4 or 5 days it would be good if it could happen.” She says she will write Stanley and run the idea past him.
Before signing off she mentions that she and Eddie saw Hitler’s Children at the local movie theater. It is a 1943 film by RKO studios about the Hitler Youth movement. She says, “It is very good. If you ever get a chance to see it, do.”