C/O Mrs Chadwick

Riffington

Uplands

Victoria B.C.

Jan'y 27th

My Dearest Jack

Many thanks for your letter of the 4th received last Friday along with three others - one from you Mother, & the other two were from Dad & a cousin of mine. I'm glad you got the view books O.K. & - for the fiftieth time - I hope you've got the other parcels alright. Your mother had written to me before but it must have gone down on the Hesperian. No mail from you yet this week, but the C.P.R. trains are very much delayed owing to the bad weather, the first train that managed to get through this week arrived at Vancouver yesterday so I hope your letter was on that. We are still snowed up, & when I left Marshalls on Monday all there water pipes were still frozen, so I guess they're having a lively old time. I have promised to go & help them pack next week, though they don't start for the Old Country until March 5th. Mrs M. says she would rather I helped her than anyone else. I might be working somewhere else after next week - hence the hurry to get the packing done. I hope you have got your long-expected leave by now, but please don't eat your head off if you haven't, there must be a method in their madness in keeping you there, perhaps they are afraid you'll go & get drunk or something, & it would be pretty risky with only one leg. I'm not afraid of you doing anything half so foolish though. I've been all day making a hat for myself (some hat eh!) We've just finished supper, & Bee is making her V.A.D. uniform, their dresses are blue & they have big white aprons with a red cross on the bib & wear a nurse's cap. Bee looks awfully nice in hers, they have to have two sets. Now dearie bye-bye for the present. Hope you are alright. Tons of love & kisses from XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Your Loving Kate XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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can't get to know these things in good time isn't it? Try & let me know which day to expect you, wont you dear, as I shouldn't like you to get here without me knowing, & I will meet you by hook or by crook. (hook I hope!) Its rather a pity you couldn't get here this week as I am not working just now, but I expect to be called up any day. The baby I am going to nurse is in the hospital with pneumonia, & I have to go & take entire charge of him when he comes out. I guess I shall be fast for a fortnight or a month, & after that I shall work afternoons only, so we'll have lots of time together. I'm glad you had a nice time at Quebec, I'm sure you would find the hills & the snow very trying though. We have had a wretched winter, we were snowed up here & couldn't get to town for nearly a fortnight, the cars weren't running for a few days & the soldiers had to turn out & clear the tracks, since when the B.C.E. gave them free rides for a month. Jack Phillips was asking me about you the other day & wanted to know when you were coming back, he said he'd heard that Harry & Edie were coming back soon. There was a paragraph in the paper about you. the Wed: after I got your telegram someone had sent it from St Johns, so everybody asks me when you are coming to Victoria. You will be sorry to hear that the V.A.D. members are no longer needed up at the Convalescent Home, (except for mending purposes) so Bee only goes up now & again to help darn etc. She used to go every Monday, its too bad now you are just coming back - just your luck. Please give my love to all at Carmangay tell Mollie I'll write as soon as I've got you settle back here again. Now dearie bye-bye, tons of love & kisses, (hope they'll be real ones pretty soon, what say you?)

from Your Loving Kate XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Please excuse short letter. Many thanks for all the New Year kisses dear, I return them with interest. Bee & Will send kind regards to you & hope you are getting stronger. Kate XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jim is at present in Vancouver on a recruiting expedition. Alice & Billy leave here on the 12th for Ontario, to take up Dairy-farming, I think they will go on the midnight boat.