Letter from Frances Hodgkins to Isabel Field
Date
16 Jan 1898
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Object Detail
Date
16 Jan 1898
Transcript
Nevada Sunday morning
My dearest Sis
I know how anxious you will be for news so I am writing you a few hurried lines. There has been no improvement since I last wrote and we can hope for none. Dr Hocken had a consultation yesterday with Dr Roberts and they hold out no hope of his recovery. They say he may go off in a state of coma any time or linger on for weeks which I pray from the bottom of my heart may not be so. Our only comfort is that he does not suffer tho’ the poor darling has had a good deal of pain up till quite lately. He sleeps most of the time and Dr Scott comes backwards and forwards and chats to him whenever he feels well enough to see him. I can’t tell you what a comfort Dr Scott is. I don’t know what we would do without him. He has a wonderful tonic effect on Father in fact braces us all up. The Dr. says the main thing is to keep his spirits up and be as bright as possible, and somehow Sis I can’t help feeling that in spite of what the Drs. say he will rally if only we can get his strength back. The trouble is to make him eat and to keep it down. He has everything that money can get for him, and Percy and Bert are so good and thoughtful. Mother is wonderfully brave and cheerful, tho it falls hardest on her and it seems only the other day she went through it all with poor Aunt Bella. I wish you were with us, I think it would cheer Mother to have you tho’ I know it is impossible for you to leave home.
I feel as if I hardly realised things and yet I have known for a long time that this has been hanging over us. I shall write again in a few days and hope to have better news for you. With love Yours, Fanny.
My dearest Sis
I know how anxious you will be for news so I am writing you a few hurried lines. There has been no improvement since I last wrote and we can hope for none. Dr Hocken had a consultation yesterday with Dr Roberts and they hold out no hope of his recovery. They say he may go off in a state of coma any time or linger on for weeks which I pray from the bottom of my heart may not be so. Our only comfort is that he does not suffer tho’ the poor darling has had a good deal of pain up till quite lately. He sleeps most of the time and Dr Scott comes backwards and forwards and chats to him whenever he feels well enough to see him. I can’t tell you what a comfort Dr Scott is. I don’t know what we would do without him. He has a wonderful tonic effect on Father in fact braces us all up. The Dr. says the main thing is to keep his spirits up and be as bright as possible, and somehow Sis I can’t help feeling that in spite of what the Drs. say he will rally if only we can get his strength back. The trouble is to make him eat and to keep it down. He has everything that money can get for him, and Percy and Bert are so good and thoughtful. Mother is wonderfully brave and cheerful, tho it falls hardest on her and it seems only the other day she went through it all with poor Aunt Bella. I wish you were with us, I think it would cheer Mother to have you tho’ I know it is impossible for you to leave home.
I feel as if I hardly realised things and yet I have known for a long time that this has been hanging over us. I shall write again in a few days and hope to have better news for you. With love Yours, Fanny.
Pages
4 pages
Sender's address
Nevada
Institutional No.
MS-Papers-0085-06
Credit Line
Letters
from
Frances
Hodgkins.
Field,
Isabel
Jane,
1867-1950
:
Correspondence
of
Frances
Hodgkins
and
family
/
collected
by
Isabel
Field.
Ref:
MS-Papers-0085-06.
Alexander
Turnbull
Library,
Wellington,
New
Zealand.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22902955
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22902955