1915 Letter 35
Lemnos
Sept. 11th, [1915]
Dear Mother,
I must try to write oftener. I really haven't had time. France was nothing to this - but now everything is better and I may safely say our hardest times are over.
I suppose fifty years from now people will write up this end of the war and the Crimea will be a thing of the past. At present we are all adding our common colonial voices to the general uproar - demanding everything under the sun and I suppose if we can keep at it long enough everything will come eventually - but in the meantime we are short of all sorts of things except hospital supplies - of which we seem to have plenty.
Your letters of Aug 9th & 12th just came a few moments ago and I am answering at once. I haven't heard a word from Eric and am hoping it means he is on leave.
Our girls are better now and all on duty so the work is easier and we are all in better spirits. By the time this reaches you I suppose you'll have seen by the papers of Miss Munro's death. She is one of #3's Sisters - they are a few minutes walk from us and it seems just like one of us. I knew her quite well coming out on the ship and as she was Mrs. Bell's greatest friend I saw quite a lot of her. Mrs. Bell was one of the D[ ]ne's in Peterboro - and they both knew Aunt Lauder - so she may be interested in hearing of her death out here.
We are all very proud of her. She was over the regular age limit but passed 3 med. exams to come - She was a most capable nurse and as soon as their patients arrived she threw herself into the work of organization, not thinking of herself. In a few days she was down with dysentery and got steadily worse. An old heart lesion was really the cause of her death in the end. She died three days ago just at dusk after a hard fight and God alone knows what she thought of it all. Mrs. Bell was with her and is almost all in herself. I am very fond of her and have kept away purposely as she has no time for strangers but am going over soon. We are about the only two from around home and we find plenty to talk about.
Their girls are not standing it as well as ours - for one thing they had never seen service before and were not accustomed to the unavoidable inconveniences of camp life as we were in France.
I think our girls have been wonderful. As a unit we seem to get into shape in a remarkably short time.
I could write you thousands of pages on our daily life but I'll have to wait for more time.
I have sent to Cairo for a camera and will snap every thing in sight for you. I missed not having one coming down but can get prints from other girls.
Scoble a girl from Winnipeg and Myra are my mainstays in life. You couldn't kick Myra into a decent walk in France. She waddled in a most exasperating way and was always low in her mind but Jove she saved our lives at first out here. We kept a table pretty much for a certain bunch who all agreed not to mention food or work at meals. Myra thanked God in the most approved way for each new culinary atrocity while we all laughed till we wept. Myra's language is truly Western and when she wasn't thanking God she was praying him to take her just after breakfast rather than face another day. She sat up and ate the rotten messes as if she'd been dining at the Ritz with all the airs and grace - and we all did our best to follow suit.
Every bite she estimated at its caloric value etc. and by Jove she was the saving of us - for we'd all have to cut out meals entirely if we hadn't the conversation to look forward to. We discussed all sorts of learned subjects and art and music etc. and Myra's comments on every thing were sure to be worth getting to meals for.
The night of Miss Munro's funeral we read Kipling and thanked God again for such a man - our days are pictured to the life. One poem "The dirge of dead Sisters" got us all but again Myra came to the front - and now the whole thing is a byword - the first verse is.
"Who recalls the twilight and the range of tents in order-
(Violet peaks uplifted through the crystal evening air?) (just like this and the clink of iron tea cups and the piteous noble laughter - and the faces of the Sisters with the dust upon their hair?"
Myra has asked everyone in camp is she has "a piteous noble laugh" and is trying to cultivate it in all of us. She says our Colonial giggles won't do at all. She says no one will ever write poetry to us if we don't acquire more of a Florence Nightingale manner.
We had iron tea cups all along - "Davidsons for durability" as a Crest on the outside and while we rather liked them as they held quarts we never knew that they were quite the proper thing having a colonial liking for China.
And Myra says she'll appear in civilization again [with] dust in her hair if she has to put it there at the last minute.
Sept. 11
Yesterday afternoon the men off one of the ships gave a little tea on the shore. It was a pleasant diversion and we surely enjoyed it. It was a real picnic - fine cups etc. and several more people -
Well I must stop now.
It has been delightfully cool the last few days and we all feel like new people.
You can send anything you like in the way of eatables. A fruitcake now and then would be grand and a box of Crane's
[ ] writing paper -
Well good night for now -
Yours always,
Helen
This is a little note on the side. Aunt Teddy has published one of my letters. I am credited with saying we had to move out of Wimereux on account of Zep- attacks. Utter rubbish.
I wrote my feelings and then mindful of late indiscretion which caused so much trouble I decided to tear it up and not antagonize another Aunt.
Please write and tell her now badly I feel for everyone is guying me: and besides it always enrages the O.C. when letters are published for those damn editors never print what you write - they add little scares of their own. Oh its terrible. I have lost all my interest in letter writing and after this will stick to you and Eric and Don.
I wouldn't have missed seeing this end of the war for worlds but lots will have to wait for telling until I see you again. Why was Aunt Teddy so foolish. Oh these women.
Yours,
Helen
You can still send the tan cashmere stockings - I wear them now and it will soon be quite cold.