Pièce 197 - Letter from Janet Trevelyan to Elizabeth Trevelyan

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Pen Rose, Berkhamsted. - Thanks Bessie for her sympathy; it [the death of her mother] was a 'most terribly sudden catastrophe' as she had seemed much better, but she made 'one imprudent movement next morning, and the poor heart gave way'. Arnold had just time to see her, but Janet was 'an hour too late'; was very hard taking the news to their father in the nursing home. It is 'the sort of grief that makes one feel years older'; feels as if they grew even closer during her mother's last years of ill health; George and her children loved her too. Hardest for her father and Dorothy, so she must help them; his father is recovering slowly; they hope to bring him back to Stocks for this summer and then the house will have to be sold. Hopes that Bessie is having a lovely time with Julian in Holland; asks if she will go to Germany at all; accounts of 'all the misery east of Holland absolutely haunt one'. Her mother's penultimate public appearance was at a Save the Children meeting in Berkhampsted; her speech 'made a deep impression'.