October 29, 1944: Anna writes a long letter to her brothers. She notes that October is an auspicious month for her having turned 25, her and Eddie celebrating their anniversary, not to mention that little Terry turned two. She writes that even she forgot about the anniversary and that “Eddie was downstairs washing walls and cleaning so I guess that neither of us had remembered that we were so happily married…”
She goes on to thank Stanley for the roses that he sent and for the wishes from Dad. “I was so surprised to receive the candy and flowers from Stanley. When the flowers came and I opened the box I felt awful funny and my throat felt tight but mama spoiled everything by bawling and then I chimed in… even [daddy’s] eyes were misty.” When the flowers arrived little Terry was taking a nap “so we put…the flowers on her bed and when she woke up …she saw the flowers and smiled from ear to ear. …I had to give her one rose and she kept on smelling it and making the rounds sticking [it] in all our noses. …Terry was telling us that she ‘likes nice flowers’. Those are her exact words…”
Whatever anniversary celebration they had was low key as Anna writes, “We didn’t have much of an affair this year on account of work.” They did, however, have a little party for Terry as she details, “Rita and Eugene came about eight o’clock with presents and they too brought a cake and ice cream…we had a little party. I brought the party candles which I had and we lit them and let Terry have a good time blowing them out. Even to date she keeps on puckering up her mouth and blowing and asks for the cake so she can blow the candles out. However, it was a happy birthday not counting the fact that only one thing was lacking – you boys.”
She addresses another part of the letter directly to Stanley. She writes that they had received a letter from him “the first letter we received from you in two weeks and we were so relieved. For a while I thought that maybe you got transferred to France… Mama was already starting to brood and I noticed something wasn’t right and finally she came out and told me what was bothering her.”
Although it is only the end of October, they are priming little Terry for Christmas. “Already we have informed Terry about Santa Claus and she says, ‘Come on Kismus and Santa Cos bring toys for Terry.’ It sounds so cute. I will have to show Santa Claus to her in pictures first before we take her down to see him in person.”
In other news from Albany:
- The “Frodyma girl” had a baby boy.
- The “Cummings boy” was home on furlough. He is now married and his wife just had a baby.
- Cousin Vincent Morawski is now “in England according to the last news that we received from his family.”
Anna wraps up her letter with “Well, I have covered all the news I think on the home front so I will be leaving you till next Sunday…”