The February 23rd letter to Rosemary tries to be whimsical. He describes it as a ‘nonsense’ letter. He refers to his situation as ‘this escapade’. What follows is his ‘silly’ but rather frank February 28 letter. The March 5th letter is more coherent. The many family letters he refers to attest to their support and care for him during this experience. The March 19th letter expresses gratitude for their thoughtfulness for his 22nd birthday; it continues as a serial letter on March 20 with an explanation how the Juniors are assisting a Guelph parish make some of the liturgical changes after Vatican II and in explaining what this year’s summer vacation (villa) may be like.

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[hand written with no letter head]

Feb. 23, 1956 [65]

Dear Rosemary,

Since I just sent off a letter to mum + dad yesterday I have very little if any new news. So you will have to be satisfied with mostly nonsense. At the moment I’m sitting in a lovely arm chair in my swank hospital room. The room has its own bathroom, two closets, one dressing table, two soft chairs for visitors, a hospital table (for the bed), another small table on wheels for convenience sake, a telephone, bed light , and of course, a bed.

I’ve had my first professional shave but a hair cut did not go with it. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ll have another professional shave though because it was to an extreme, all the hair from my thigh to my big toe. Wild barbers!!

At any rate my cartilage is to be pulled tomorrow morning sometime + that means a lot of rest in the next two weeks and then a lot of work to catch up on. I’ll miss a midterm exam in Botany at the O.A.C. [Ontario Agricultural College] on Thursday but that’s one of the good results of this escapade.

I never did tell you how much I enjoyed your letter. You should write more often your know. Your marks are fabulous. I wish they were mine but then the girls in our family always did a little better mark-wise than I. Keep up the good work. By the way, your history mark didn’t indicate that you were doing so poorly. I remember how I enjoyed that course when back in grade nine. There were a lot of names and dates to remember but I find ancient history intriguing. Greek history + literature are excellent.

Are you taking much Shakespeare? He is one of my favourites. (His play, Hamlet, is a masterpiece.) Don’t judge him from your first contact with him for the language of the day might not strike you as pleasant at first, but stick to it. After you do a couple of his plays or so you will get on to it. Actually his method of expression (style) and choice of words are marvellous. It helps a lot to see his plays done on stage so if you get a chance to see one on T.V. or a live performance, don’t miss it.

I wonder how I got on to Shakespeare. Just the word reminds me of the time we were playing “charades” (probably not spelled right) + the thing to be guessed was written by Shakespeare. The person doing or acting shook his hips from side to side and then pretended to throw a spear. It looked so funny + his team guessed it immediately.

Have you ever wanted to write a nonsense letter? I always remember reading a letter Lewis Carrol wrote to a little girl. It was quite nonsensical but very entertaining. Writing a nonsensical letter might be fun and you will probably say, after you’ve finished reading this one, that this is all nonsense. The problem is that that type of letter is supposed to be amusing and at times funny and when I reread this it doesn’t strike me as funny.

Oh well! Perhaps if I put something really fantastic in this letter— no, that would not help. Besides my imagination is not working too well today. It used to when I was small. Take for instance when I was about seven years old. While breaking up the huge pieces of coal [in the shed] so that they would fit into the [kitchen] stove, I pretended I was someone else and would talk a blue steak. That wasn’t all, sometimes I would keep up two ends of a conversation. If you doubt the veracity of this ask one of your older sisters. Some times they would sneak up to see who I was talking to. It was a little embarrassing.

So that you will not think I am off balanced mentally, I can assure you that I no longer converse with myself, not that it’s impossible now, but my imagination is not as vivid as it was then.

I’d end up with a witty little French quotation but since the spelling would not be fit to be seen by a Frenchman I’ll just ask you to remember your ailing brother in your prayers. Since——- (I started to say something + forgot)— I have no typewriter, you will have to struggle with my handwriting. Good luck!

Love

Frank

P.S. You are constantly in my prayers.

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[hand written with no letter head]

Feb. 28, 1956 [65]

Dear Mum + Dad,

As you can probably see from the writing, this letter was not written at a desk. Actually I’m sitting up in my “crank up” bed + am too lazy to move over my bed table. I went to two masses this morning because I thought the fast was still three hours + so didn’t go to communion at the first one.

Of course my transportation consisted of a wheel chair with a leg “thing” sticking out the front to support the right leg. Since Wed. I haven’t done toomuch walking. It was “H” to get out of bed on Thursday morning + true to form I nearly fainted dead away. But the next morning wasn’t too bad + it seems to be getting easier though I still need someone to manage the leg for me. Yesterday I went for my first walk up the hall with crutches.

I am being kidded about talking a lot because when I came out of the “anesthetic (?)”(I don’t’ have a dictionary here) they say I talked a mile a minute. Oh well!! This is a silly letter but thought I’d drop a note to tell you I’m doing well + am being taken care of as well as one could be.

Love

Frank

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[hand written with no letter head]

March 5, 1965

Dear Mum + Dad,

Well, this is the next letter in the series. The other just didn’t get mailed.I’m doing much better by now + getting around quite well with crutches. The doctor will take off the bandages tomorrow + I’m supposed to go home on Sunday.

When are you having your operation mum? It shocked me a little when I found out about it. Is it a serious operation, that is, major surgery? I hope not.

My week + a half have been as enjoyable as hospital life can be. The sisters and the staff [especially Mrs. Webster] are wonderful + other people are constantly dropping in for a chat so that my time does not drag at all.

There is a couple of lads down the hall who have knee trouble also so I pop down to play cards with them especially the one for he can’t get around yet. Both are from the Ontario Reformatory + are surprisingly pleasant. They are both so good at heart but so weak.

Please thank Lil [sister] for her letter + Viv [sister] too. I will answer them soon. (Marlene [sister] still must be waiting for my reply) I’ll catch up sometime.

We have forty hours [devotion] here at the hospital so I’ll get in two forty hours this year. The altars are lovely. You know how well the sisters arrange flowers and things.

After reading the other letter I found out I didn’t tell you much. The doctor removed the cartilage on the inner part of the right knee (i.e. the half toward the left leg) I don’t know how many stitches etc because there is a bandage from ankle to high thigh which has been on since the operation. I’ll find out tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

Hope all of you are well + let me know all about your operation mum.

Love

Frank

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IGNATIUS COLLEGE

Guelph Ontario

March 19, 1965

Dear Mum, Dad, and all,

The first thing I have to do is thank you all very much for your thoughtfulness on my birthday yesterday [22 years old]. The cake was simply out of this world and the marsh mellow topping stimulated many ah’s and oh’s of delight. The squares and cookies are heavenly also. They have not got a chance yet to be appreciated for I have been hoarding them until today so that we can have something special at the two collations.

Thank you also for the hand cream and aftershave. The fish clothes brush is positively delightful and stands out beautifully on my blue wall. (By the way your parcel arrived in excellent condition on St. Patrick’s day.) All of your greeting cards were appreciated very much and I promise to answer all the letters that accompanied the greetings. (I won’t promise when, but only as soon as possible. Take for instance Marlene. She has written me four letters and I still haven’t answered her.

 Please thank her for them all and I hope that her finger is healing quickly. Please thank Lil for the snapshots and letter, and Bernice too. I won’t ask you to thank aunt Josephine because I will probably get a letter off to her before you get a chance to see her.)

I should have sent a note about two weeks ago telling you that I came home from the hospital. I spent two days less of two weeks but came home walking without the assistance of even a cane. It was slow and painful but every day it became easier and easier to get around. At the present I can walk around for most of the day with just a small limp. (Towards evening the knee swells up a little more so I have to slow down.)

But on the whole its healing up fast, so unlike another lad who is in the hospital and has been there since December the first. He had a similar operation but they di
covered that he was allergic to a few things, after the operation had been performed, with the result that the stitches would not heal. So he is left with an open wound and they are not sure what to do. It looks as though he’ll have to spend at least two more months in the hospital. So you see where I start counting my blessings.

I was very happy to hear that you would not have to go through the ordeal of another operation mum. Operations are not pleasant even if they are merely minor ones.

March 20, 1965

I just didn’t get this letter finished yesterday so it will have to be a serial type of letter. Last night about nine of us choir members went in to St. Joseph’s Parish church in Guelph to sing a solemn High Mass. Their congregation is really zooming as far as singing is concerned because they all sang quite vociferously for the Proper of the Mass and hymns. We went mainly to sing the Kyrie, Gloria etc. in English for it takes time to teach all of these to a congregation.

Our congregation here at the college know the English Kyrie etc quite well but because we live all together and have practices, we should. As a matter of fact the choir knows two English Kyries etc. One of the nuns [Sister Teresina who than became Sister Emma] at the Loretto Convent in Guelph wrote the music for one and as us to learn and tape it for her. So we did.

The weather here has turned cold again. For awhile it looked as though spring was here but then the other day we got another heavy snowfall with a brisk breeze. It reminded me very much of a good prairie snowstorm even though it wasn’t too fierce.

Today is our villa day and for the second time this year we will go to our new villa which was built over the winter. It is a large one room building at present and will serve as a dining room- living room (probably) for our summer holidays. I think we will sleep in tents and so our villa will be really a lot like camping out. It should be a lot of fun.

The building has a lovely fireplace in it and that does a lot for atmosphere. At Oakville villa last year we have fire places in practically every main room of the house and people liked to relax in front of a burning fire listening to music or just chatting.

I wrote a letter to Myrna [sister] and Charlie the other day and then realized that I didn’t have their new address. I’ll include the letter in this one and if you see them would you give it to them or just send it on if you have the address. It was supposed to be in time to wish Suzy [niece] a happy birthday but it will be good and late.

Enclosed is a little cartoon (a take-off on the Peanut comic strip) someone put up on our bulletin board yesterday. [It is lost.] It certainly strikes me as a testimony to your good cooking mum.

I hope you are all well. You are always remembered in my prayers. May God bless all of you.

Love

Frank

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All photos courtesy of Frank Obrigewitsch, SJ