Le Treport
France Feb. 16 19.

Dear Very Dear Mother

It is a long time since I have heard from you. I expected to have some letters waiting for me when I returned from leave, but not a one. What is the matter that you have not written. I have had a very busy time for the last month or more and have been unable to write much myself, but hope you will excuse me.

I am expecting to leave here in a week or two for England and will probably be there about three weeks before returning to Canada.

I hope that you will not condemn me for marrying a girl whose father was a German. He has been dead several years and her mother has worked very hard to bring up the family herself. Her mother is Italian and a very good woman too and Rosa has been brought up Roman Catholic. Her mother has been a cashier in a restaurant in London for twenty years. Rosa is a very kind and earnest girl and has been very nice to me. Please do not condemn her before you see her, because she has been a wonderful girl to me, and I think the world of her. I met her in the spring of 1916 by happening to see her in the restaurant where her mother worked. Her mother is not working there now but is staying at home. We were married at her church in London on Jan. 30th.

I do not believe you will think me foolish when you see her and get to know her. However I consider it my duty to myself as well as to her. I love her more than my own life. She is very tender hearted and I could not see her unhappy. I could not have been happy to go back to Canada without her. She is shorter than I am and quite pretty and people take to her very quickly. Her name is Rosa which is Italian for Rosie. She said she hoped you would be as good her as you said in your letter. She is going to find it very, very hard to part from her Mother, who has always been so very good to her. She does not write English very well, so please excuse her spelling. She understands French, Italian & Latin.

I only received your cablegram when I returned from leave. How is Lila getting along? Has she been married yet?

Now Dear Mother I hope I have not worried you too much. I know how easily you are worried, but please do not do it, both for my sake and Rosie's. She is a good living girl and has given her heart to God. I know it is only through God's wonderful grace that I have here today for my wife. So you may be thankful that God has been so wonderfully kind t me even though I am far away from home in a foreign land. We have been a great help to one another in overcoming the trials that are caused by this awful war. I hope this letter will find you well and also Father & Lila and that it will remove any worry which my silence may have caused. With much love
Your own son
Earl