Letters from Esther -- #13

I am writing up a series of letters my grandmother, Esther, sent "home" to her siblings in North Dakota as she traipsed around the world working for the State Department as a working woman before it was chic. Letters were chosen over phone calls because long distance calls were expensive, and it was sometimes difficult to hear well at a distance.

This letter is the next letter I have from Esther by date, and the last letter I have in the series from Esther to Jennie and the rest of the family in North Dakota.

Envelope:
E. Holien
3842 Lake St., Geo. Dr.
Palm Harbor, Fl. 34684

To:
Jen and Rudy Efraimson
Perth, N. D. 58363

Oct. 5 '88

Dear Jennie and Rudy:

This is the first day since I got here that its cool enough in the morning to have the windows open. Theres a little breeze from the east and its cloudy. I imagine if the sun comes blasting through these kitchen windows though it will warm up real fast. But its supposed to be only in the low 80s for a high. So much for the weather.

Thank you for your letter, Jen. That is a really cute picture of AZA. I put it into my album. I too am back to quilting. I'm making a wallhanging about 36 by 40 inches. Its in that last book you sent me last year. At one point I was going to throw it into the garbage cause I had such a time getting it to look right but now I think its going to be O.K. after I let it rest a few days.

Dorothy, Florence and I had quite an experience last week. I picked them up and we went to Sunset Beach. Its been built up since that storm a couple of years ago and now has a nice wide sandy beach and very pepople (very many people?) on it. Not much parking place left though. Anyway the water was perfect -- 84 but not quite like bathwater and such a few little gentle ripples. we swam around for close to an hour and decided we should get into the shade for a while. We had lunch at that little Bistro and Florence and I decided to play a little scrabble. As Dorothy doesn't play she said she thought she'd go back into the water and we told her to go ahead and that we'd be in as soon as we finished our game. She was back in a few minutes with a bleeding ankle and was in terrific pain. I went over to the cafe to see if they knew of what might be in the water to cause such a thing and they said yes -- it was the sting ray season and gave me some ice to put on it.

Florence and I did go back in for a short swim but Dorothy was still in pain when we got back so I insisted that we stop at Palms of Pasadena Emergency room on the way back. They told her ice was the wrong thing and when I got back from parking the car she was sitting there with her foot in a pan of hot water. They took her blood pressure, gave her a tetnus shot and told her to soak it for 20 minutes four times a day and it should be alright in four days. Florence wasn't so sure because she got stung once and it took all summer to get over it.

Well of course I was quite worried cause it had been my idea but Dorothy called me the next morning and said the pain was gone and she had slept like a log. I've talked to her since and she said she keeps soaking it like they told her but that it hadn't hurt her at all since.

Oh, I got the tape of Eino's funeral from Hilda and enjoyed listening to it all except the organ. But it was good to have it and to feel almost like you were there.

Well, will call this it for now. Still haven't gotten used to this machine -- especially after using Carole's last summer.

Much love,

Esther