Dear Friend Liguori,
I hope you are settling well. After leaving you in Sacramento, we continued on to Oakland where the train finally ended its trip. Of course the children had barely fallen asleep when I had to wake them again so we could proceed on our way. The views as we traveled closer and closer to San Francisco were astonishing. More of the wonderful agricultural land, yes, but more frequent and better glimpses of the river winding its way toward the ocean, until that same ocean, glimpsed through the golden hills, shimmered and sparkled like jewels.
We crossed the bay side from Oakland to San Francisco in the ferry, me worried every second that the children would somehow escape me and lean over the edge and fall into the water. But we all made it and Patrick was waiting for us at the ferry building.
It was so heartwarming to be reunited with Patrick and him with us after so many months. He has been working hard, but well, and found us rooms in a building that does not even come close to the term tenement building. Of course the neighborhood is a bit chaotic and busy, but were there are so many kinds of workers, with so many people from so many lands, of course the are ais bound to be a bit rough. But we do have kind neighbors, whose children are the same age as Annie and Will.
Annie and Will were dears throughout the whole train ride, as you kept reminding me, on the adventure of their short lives, and it was worth it, to be together as a family again. I feel such hope now that we can start again. Our sadness will always be with us, but the distance must do something to blunt the pain that is buried at St. Josephs in Jersey. Little John will always be a part of us, but I have hope in this new exciting and bustling town.
I hope that you find your school and its children well and suited to you, as I am know you will be suited to them, such a knack that you have with the children. Give my love to Mary Francis and Mary Anthony, and write when you can.
Fondly,
Kate C.
Comments
Post a Comment