Letter 27 12/15/1952 The Original Karen and the Hope Chest

This episode was one of the harder letters to read and place into the world.  There is an example of Hate ( Blue Square) in this episode, due to that fact the publish date was pushed past the holiday season and into the New Year.  We're not hiding from the hate we expose, but I'm sure not publishing it during the holy season.  December 15th, 1952 — Joyce writes from Kankakee, Illinois, still home for Christmas break and sending her airmail letters back west to Denver. She’s surrounded by family, gossip, and domestic dramas — her sister Ina’s birthday slipped her mind, her sister Cleone is clashing with her future mother-in-law, and her stepfather is offering “gifts” that come with strings attached.

Joyce fills Earl in on every detail: the new apartment Cleone and Ray are furnishing, the meddling mother-in-law who lost her house and blames “everyone different,” and her own mother’s declining health — the letter shifts from biting humor to quiet worry as she describes her mother’s serious condition and the strain of caring for her.

Even amid family tension, Joyce’s warmth and wit shine through. She talks of knitting Earl’s second sock, wanting to play organ for Christmas Eve services, and dreaming of Denver — her true home now. She closes the letter missing him fiercely, trying not to feel lonely, and signing off with the tender familiarity of a woman who’s already halfway between her old life and the new one she’s building with him.

Topics Include:

• Writing from Kankakee during Christmas break
• Family drama: Cleone’s meddling mother-in-law and home tension
• Sister Ina’s forgotten birthday
• Stepfather’s manipulative “money with conditions” offers
• Mother’s serious health concerns and medical details
• Knitting Earl’s second sock
• Plans to play organ for Christmas Eve services
• Thoughts on heaven, faith, and family hardship
• Discussing wedding plans for Cleone and Ray
• Reflections on loneliness and longing for Earl
• Reading and favorite authors (Lloyd C. Douglas, The Great Fisherman)

Transcript

This one is also from Kankakee, Illinois via air mail to, ooh, Alcott Street in Denver, Colorado. So now we are riding from one childhood home to another childhood home.

Must be Christmas break still. Okay, December 15th, 1952. My darling. So far, I've got quite a bit done, or I should say, I've made quite a few plans. Today is my sister's birthday and I forgot all about it. In fact, I didn't even have a card for her. She called me today and I think I'll go up Friday and come back Saturday.

Maybe I should bake a pie and some cookies for her. So at least it won't be quite as bad as no present. She's 27. My, is she crazy about that little boy she dates? He'll be 29 in January. My stepfather, no or step relation doesn't know he's been divorced. This must be Ina's husband, John. What an uproar if they did.

Honestly, the less the old man knows, the better off everyone is. John goes to see Ina every night, so I will meet him Friday, I hope. Cleone really has a lot of things in her hope chest, and a bed, coffee, and end tables and chairs, along with an old dining set that can be fixed up. Did I tell you in my last letter her apartment has a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bath?

All of the rooms are fairly good size, only she's starting to have mother-in-law problems. Ray's mother is nice, but she's quite a bitty. She lost her home in Chicago and so has decided that she'll live with Ray. She moved her furniture into Ray and Cleon's apartment and now thinks that she's going to paint, et cetera, to suit herself.

Cleon and Rey think she's not. Her house she lived in was sold at auction, aww, and when she opened her mouth to bid higher, it was closed. Ugh, yeah, so basically they took her house from her because she was a woman. She's still storming at the poor...

GP so maybe that means good people who bought it she


Okay, so we're just going to read now about how Ray's mother-in-law is not a good person.

When she opened her mouth to bid, it was closed. She's still storming at the poor and it looks like DP who bought it. She hates Jews. (BLUE SQUARE MOMENT) Well, that's just too bad, lady. DP and everything she can think of that's different. I don't know what DP is, but. So she called President Truman person to person to tell him to come to Chicago to clean it up since she was so mistreated.

But Truman was on his whistle stop tour. Isn't that hilarious? My poor baby sister. But Mrs. Cobur is awfully good to Smits. She's given her towels and everything galore.

My mother has been going to the doctor all fall and not telling me. For a while, they thought she might have cancer of the womb. It seems she wasn't taken care of right. At childbirth, she might have cancer of the womb. It seems she wasn't taken care of right at childbirth. Yeah, she did end up having ovarian cancer. And now her uterus, bladder, and intestines are falling or sagging or something.

The uterus is the lowest and as a result, she sits up on it, so to speak. The walls of the uterus are so weak that the other organs are coming through sort of like a rupture. Today she got to support a support worn in the vagina to keep the uterus in place. She hasn't gotten cancer. She hasn't got cancer.


yet. Well, we do know that later in life she does end up with ovarian cancer. They want to remove her uterus and stuff, but she isn't going to have it done till my stepfather is gone in parentheses dead. He's more worried than an operation would be unless of course cancer sets in. Ina has been going to the doctor

with mama to be sure that someone in the family knew definitely what the scare was. We three stinking brats have certainly caused poor mama enough trouble. Tomorrow, I'm going to do my Xmas shopping for gifts and cards and I hope to have everything mailed by Thursday.

Mails are coming are slower now and so my Denver cards and things will probably get there a day or so after Xmas. I'm enjoying my vacation here a lot. Sweetheart, as long as it's during the week, I don't feel bad because I know I couldn't see you even if I were there.

My mother is sure thrilled to have me home. Wednesday night, I'm going to chair practice, to choir practice and over to Whirlene's. That's a nickname. Tomorrow, I want to go into the dime store where the Sunday school scripts. The Sunday stool. Okay. Tomorrow I want to go to the dime store where the Sunday school superintendent of

primary department works and let her know I'm home in hopes I can play the organ for Christmas Eve. My stepfather has told Cleon he'll give her and Ray a hundred dollars if they'll throw out all of the furniture they have because he doesn't like it. He's never given anyone in the family a dime without tacking on an if clause.


He'll most likely offer me a hundred dollars. It's supposedly our wedding gift with some lousy thing he wants me to do. I'll tell him he can keep it if I don't like his conditions. But I do hope he gives Cleon and Ray the money. I could write a whole post on money and conditions. yes, he finished my war band about three months ago.

So now I have two. Only this last one won't be due till I'm 31. Oh, he finished my war bond about three months ago. So now I have two war bonds. Only this last one won't be due till I'm 31. So we may need it then, who knows. I started the second row of diamonds on your other sock. Really, it's neater and closer than the other one.

But the first one was the first difficult piece of knitting I'd done and I'm proud of it. Imagine getting one sock for your birthday.

Mom and I have been discussing the preacher, et cetera. He doesn't know if he, he, okay. Mom and I have been discussing the preacher, et cetera. He hasn't been here to call on the folks, which seems strange since I wrote and asked him to, but he and another church member have been building a new.

and getting moved so maybe there's a reason. Mother is getting more hard of hearing all the time. I expect it, excuse please, before too many years.


I don't know what this word is. Roll by, before too many years roll by, she'll be totally deaf. Dear, no matter how long I sit and think, I still can't reconcile my thoughts to believing heaven is on earth. If it is, then it seems as if someone deserving it most has missed it. And that to me is the main reason.

and I can't believe it. Cleon doesn't want a big wedding, but Ray does. That is, he wants her to have a long white dress and all the trimmings. While she wants a suit or a good dress wedding, they've sure got their troubles. I'll save you the thing. She got her way and they had a suit good dress wedding. yes, I sent Jeffaise a check, but I...

completely forgot the tax. What should I do?


wait till they ask for it? Question mark. Mother or rather Ina has a copy of Aversheets Mature Mind. So I may look at it while I'm home. I'd give anything to read The Great Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas. He's about my favorite modern author.

and that's about the only thing of his I haven't read. Has it snowed in Denver? There is quite a bit of snow or has been here. It's about all melted now though. I'm not tired, but I have to take mom to town tomorrow. So I'll have get up early, which means I have to go to bed before too long.

This change in the altitude keeps me pretty well pooped and I slept 14 hours last night. I didn't think it was possible. I sure am glad I'm home. I hope Saturday and Sunday, I am not as lonely and unhappy as I was yesterday. Yesterday, I almost started walking back to Denver so I could be in your arms.

I wish I never had to get more than two feet away from you, my darling. If I keep on, I'll make myself lonely tonight. And I've been so...

proud of how well I was doing in not being lonely all day. sweetheart, if I could just hug and kiss you a thousand times right now, I'd be so happy. I'll send this to Denver. I hope you got the one I mailed today. All right. I sent it airmail to Boulder. Pardon me. Do you miss me? What all have you been doing?


I practiced the piano today, dear, and I'm going to practice tomorrow too. Pretty soon I'm going to start going to church to play the organ. Junior has been quite good to me all day. I guess he likes being home. Why do I call it he? It should be a she. I don't even know what that means. Well, my love, I will say good night now and bye bye till the next time. it's probably the period still the cramps start.

but it's still going on. Okay, so today we learned that Ray's mother was the original Karen.