June 25, 1943. A letter to Dad from Anna at home. Baby Theresa-Marie is eight months old. Anna reports that “Time flew so quickly…” and “…she is getting to be quite a young lady.” As the baby’s personality is developing, Anna says that “Terry doesn’t like old or older people for some reason or another.” Anna cites two instances in the past few days when the baby reacted negatively to older people. Once when they went to visit a friend who “came right over to Terry and started to pick her up and she just took one look at her and started to scream. I took her in my arms and she stopped immediately and then she turned around and gave…a dirty look which made all of us laugh.” In another instance “Pani (Aunt) Baldowski came over and wanted to play with her and she just yelled.”
Anna relates that “Mama and daddy sure love Terry. Mama always calls her coreczka (Polish for daughter) and kinola, short of Anoiolek (Polish for angel). She puts her fat little hand in yours and you just can’t help loving her. Sometimes when I carry her in my arms I hug her so hard that it seems that I will press her right into me again. I think that is what is called mother love.”
In other news from home, Jimmy Walsh was home on furlough for his grandfather’s funeral. Tony Maffeo is also home on furlough.
Anna addresses a whole paragraph to Dad. The gist of it is summed up in her advice that “if you will pass for ASTP, don’t feel bad because you think we will feel bad. If you can get an opportunity to get the kind of training you want, it is up to yourself so take it.” It seems that she has concerns about the possibilities of her brothers being sent overseas. “If you have to go I hope that it is to the European side because I am afraid of the Japs. I have heard so many stories of them how cruel they are and how they torture people. I have heard true stories told by people on the radio who actually witnessed the horrible cruelties and it makes my skin crawl to think about some of the poor boys over there who are suffering so much and who will never see home again. Pray boys hard and we will pray with you so you don’t ever get sent to the Pacific side of the world.”
Anna wraps with “So-long, Good-luck, and God Bless You.”