The Junior tries to bridge an age gap in the letter addressed to Mathew. Mathew, now almost 11, was 8 years old when Frank left home. He gives an update on the prognosis regarding his knee. The next letter gives the details of the osteogram and of the celebrations for Brother Hevey. That and the next letter contain some anxiety of the wait for the impending hospital call. He gets himself in a little trouble with an adjective he uses to describe the weather and ends up backtracking in February 16th letter!

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IGNATIUS COLLEGE

Guelph, Ontario

Feb. 6, 1965

Dear Mathew

Just to be different I thought I’d write to you. Thank you very much for your letter; it was good to hear from you. Actually it is my fault that you do not write, for when I think back, I haven’t written you, and how can I expect a letter from you if I don’t write you.

You know that your chores sound very much like the ones I used to do. Perhaps I didn’t do them all at one time as you are doing, but I remember how hard it was at times to get them done. It took a lot of time to store up the patience to do them all well. Maybe you don’t appreciate all the smaller responsibilities now, and if you do , you will know how valuable they are and will be.

Your marks look pretty good. I thought you were having trouble with Social Studies. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about with a mark like that, but I’m sure you must have worked hard to get marks like that. Keep up the good work and develop good study habits early.

I hope you will be able to go to camp again. Camp was one of the best holidays in my whole life. The big thing was living with all those other boys.

What am I doing? We just started our second school term. Our school year is divided into two sections, and after each section we write exams on the matter we took in each term. So now there is a lot of homework. Every week we have to write a paragraph which is difficult to do because every little point has to be correct.

It is hard work to write well but so important. If your teacher makes you write a lot be happy because you will appreciate it when you get into the higher grades. I never did write very much in public school and now I have to take so much time to write properly.

I’m giving you too much advice in this letter. You’d think it was a sermon or something. Besides those regular paragraphs I have to write two term papers. Term papers are essays about ten to twelve type-written pages long in which you expose a subject or present a new argument on a particular topic. Each one usually takes about twenty-five hours of work.

As far as recreation is concerned I’m still sitting on my rear and playing chess or reading. I went out to play hockey yesterday but it is impossible for me to get around fast enough to be much good. I went to see the doctor today and he told me to drop into the hospital next Wednesday for an “osogram”.

He will put some dye into the knee and x-ray it so that he can see the cartilages between the two leg bones. He is quite certain that he has to remove one side cartilage but he wants to find out exactly how the other two are. If he operates he will do it a week from Wednesday (of the osogram), so say a prayer. Operation or no operation, he said it will take a little time to get the thing into good shape.

So much for me. Take care of mum, dad, and Rosemary and tell Rosemary that I’m waiting for another letter from her. I am look forward to hearing from you again too Mathew. You have much to tell me about your school life (I don’t know what it is like to go to a big public school.) and all your other interests. It doesn’t have to be about a big occasion. The little everyday things are what I enjoy hearing the most.

Please say hello to Mum, Dad, Rosemary and the rest of the family and wish Bernice’s little fellow a happy birthday for me. You and all the rest of the family are remembered every day in my prayers. Don’t forget to say a prayer for you older brother once in awhile. He needs them.

Love

Frank

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[hand written letter with no letter head]

Feb. 16, 1965

Dear Mum, dad + all

As usual it’s been too long since the last letter but . . . . . .

Please thank Rosemary for her recent letter. I was happy to hear form her + will write her in about a week’s time. Please give Marlene the exact same message except that I will answer her two letters. All these letters caught me at a good time for during this past week I’ve been looking forward to an appointment in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Guelph to have my cartilage in my knee removed. I had that ostiogram last Wednesday and it confirmed all the doctor’s suspicions.

The ostiogram was a simple but painful experience. If you have ever had water-on-the-knee, you will know what it feels like to have that dye injected into your knee joint. After they had manipulated the joint a little to get the dye all over, they took about 16 x-rays. I now have the ‘most photographed, or rather x-rayed knee” in Ignatius College I’ll bet. If not, at least the barest knee, for it had to be shaved so that the hairs would not show up on the x-ray.

I was supposed to go into St. Joseph’s this afternoon at 2:00 but at one they phoned and said they had no bed so I don’t know when I’ll be going in. It might be tomorrow morning or Friday or next Tuesday. I’ll drop a note when I find out.

Whenever it is, I’ll be in the hospital for about two weeks. It’s hard to believe it should take that long but it does. So I’m in for a two week vacation in the middle of the school term, however these are little consolations even though it will take much work to catch up. Take for instance next Sunday; I won’t have to give my sermon in “tones” class.

Well, that’s about enough about me.

I never did tell you about our celebrations on the second of February. We celebrated Brother Hevey’s golden anniversary in the Society. On that same day one Father took his final vows and three novices took their first vows. One postulant took his cassock. The day was a wonderful one.

The choir sang some selections during dinner and Tom Bonic + I sang two songs; one in honour of Brother Hevey which was sung to the melody of “The Fox”, and one in honor of Fr. Feeley (who taught at Campion) to the melody of “Lemon Tree”. Terry Prendergast wrote the lyrics to them both. It was a lot of fun.

You mentioned the camera in your last letter. Do you want me to send it home now or wait and perhaps drop it off in person if things work out well this summer? I found a film in it which I had forgotten to send you. It will be mailed immediately.

The weather here has been positively feminine all winter. (Please forgive the adjective but it seemed like a good one because it is always said that a woman can change her mind at the drop of a hat. Nothing personal though, as you know, some of the nicest people I know are feminine, e.g. my mother, sisters, grandmothers, aunts and friends.)

Be all that as it may, the weather has not known whether it wanted to be warm or cold all winter. One day it rains or just melts, the next it blows, snows and freezes. Just the other day our hockey players were going to play hockey against a seminary team in Kitchener but their ice melted. Our ice wasn’t too bad because it was colder here so they came here + played. (We won; 5 – 4)

Well, if I don’t take off to the hospital tonight I will begin a triduum (a 3 day small retreat) after which all of us will renew our vows. (That’s not giving you the right idea though. We don’t renew our vows because they are perpetual, rather we get a chance to stop and think so that we can renew them spiritually and live them better. It’s all very practical and valuable.)

I’ve run out of things to say, but perhaps I should have said I must have run out of material a page ago because when rereading what my pen left, I found that little was said ad nauseam.

You are always remembered in my prayers. Don’t forget to say a little extra one for me in these more trying days. By the way, even if I’m in hospital you can still send your mail here to the college because people are always going in + out of the hospital for ministry etc. so it will only be delayed here a day or two at most. I tried to write a letter for a change. I hope you can read it.

Love

Frank

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[hand written with no letter head]

Feb. 22, 1965

Hello again! I just found the letter I forgot to mail last week and though it would be a good idea to add another small one. So if you want to get everything in the right sequence you’ll have to start with the other letter.

At present I am again anticipating my departure for the hospital tomorrow afternoon. But the nervousness won’t be evident this time because with practice it isn’t so bad waiting, especially when things could be postponed. (It’s quite definite this time however.)

The Triduum was very enjoyable. We had a well know liturgist, Fr. Leonard, as director. His wonderful speaking ability and excellent mind + ideas were refreshing. We are now anticipating the liturgical changes coming on the 7th of March and experimenting (with our Bishop’s approval of course) with the English etc. All of this made the triduum a unique spiritual experience.

On Saturday our hockey players went to play hockey at the seminary in Kitchener. This time they lost 9 – 7.

I’ll have to make up a list of seeds pretty soon so that Brother can order them at the beginning of March. I think I
rsquo;ll put in a lot of petunias, marigolds and line the beds with alyssum so that they will be colourful all the time. We always plant some asters and snapdragons (besides the glads) so that we have a supply of cut flowers for the altars.

We don’t put vases on the altar though. Instead we have the stands against the back wall. It looks lovely because all our masses are “facing the people” and the flowers against the brick wall set off the whole sanctuary and don’t clutter or hide anything.

So that last week’s memory lapse doesn’t reoccur I’m going to put this letter in the envelope and mail it immediately. Don’t forget to say a few extra prayers for this needy soul. You are always remembered in mine.

Love

Frank

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All photos courtesy of Frank Obrigewitsch, SJ