Geoff’s letter enclosing the one from Mrs Searle:

Saturday

Dear Leon & Eva

Many thanks for Don’s letter to hand but I am sorry it doesn’t provide the answer to our problem – or yours. Sufficient is it for me to add that after covering the responsibility of Mother for over 10 years after Dad’s death Stella and I are at the end of our tether.

From a purely personal angle I would still plod on but it doesn’t affect us all in the same way and I am sure you do not realise that I know there will be tragic circumstances if another spell is attempted. It is not for my sake or Stella’s that I have to call a halt but the children’s future is at stake and they are entitled to a normal life with their mother and father.

I have kept Don’s letter from Stella and just as well I did as with the same post there was an air mail from her sister in Singapore telling her she is in hospital following an operation for removal of several stones and the gall bladder. This is mere coincidence but you can imagine the effect on top of other things.

On the brighter side – I hope for all of us – I enclose a copy of a reply to a letter I sent to the person in charge of a good old folks’ home in Exeter at least two months ago. I have also written to Mother telling her of the advantages from her side but before Leon reads it to her – and the letter from Fort Villa – I suggest he and Don have a word together. (I have sent the normal daily letter separately.)

In my view Mother would be as happy there as she could be anywhere for the following reasons:-

1. Exeter is her birthplace and she has asked me several times during my visits “if only I could fix her up in a couple of rooms in that part.”
2. Her old friends Mrs Chapman and Mrs Elston (not the one mentioned in the Fort Villa letter – although they would also be pleased to see her) would be able to visit her at regular intervals.
3. We could visit her say once every three weeks which would mean to her one of us once a week.
4. The person with whom she will be staying knows mother – the place too was also recommended by Mrs Chapman’s son to me.
5. Fort Villa is well known to Mother and is but a few yards from Whittlesea* which is ever in her mind.
6. The parson who now lives at Whittlesea also visits the home – and he’s a jolly nice chap too. Communion is important to Mother.
7. She could be re-registered with Dr Bradshaw who has known her for years. In the event of an impossible situation ultimately occurring he has all the back ground.

I will pop down to Mrs Searle next week and give her the up to date position and if you agree will book the place for Mother from Monday 10th November (or Sunday 9th) which is the earliest possible – at least until the end of my session – viz 5 weeks plus 16 weeks from Dec. 14th. If of course you both feel this should be permanent I’ll make it from Nov. 10th with no closing date, but this must be for you to decide quickly. From the paying angle I will make up the amount normally allowed for Mother to 6 guineas for the period [illegible] unless you have other ideas on the subject.

One thing I do suggest is that the sentence about payment should not be read to Mother – merely tell her that we will look after that. If you tell her the cost, it’ll only frighten her off as you know her ideas on finance are a little adrift these days.

The only other thing is how to get her there and that I am afraid I must leave to one of you – obviously however if the accommodation is not taken from Nov. 9th or 10th it will not be available from Dec. 14th.

I have tried to do and say what I feel is right and I do ask that when you decide you will consider not only your side but the fact that I just cannot undertake the proposition on Dec. 14th without grave risk of serious consequences.

Have written the same to both of you.

Love, G&S

*Whittlesea was the name of the house where Emily had previously lived – and it looks as if perhaps when she sold up after her husband Tom’s death it was bought by The Rev. Powell Price as mentioned in Mrs Searle’s letter – more research is indicated.

The house was named after the town in Victoria, Australia, where Tom’s sister ended up living. Her story is one of the more fascinating ones in the whole collection, as I’m sure you’ll agree when we get to it.

There is a bundle of correspondence from 1958 in which Leonard, Don and Geoff (Alec’s father and uncles) are trying to resolve the issue of where their mother, Emily, should live. At this point Emily is approaching her 86th birthday, and has clearly been shuttling around from one son to another, a month at a time, probably for several years. That this isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a viable arrangement becomes obvious when Geoff, the youngest – clearly at the end of his tether – proposes sending Emily to live in residential care.

The file (all three brothers, and Alec, were great makers of notes and keepers of records, hence the amount of paper they left behind) begins with a handwritten letter to Geoff from Mrs Searle at Fort Villa, Butts Road, Heavitree, Exeter, dated 30 October 1958. Unusually for the time, it has been ‘photostatted‘ – the company was not yet the Xerox Corporation! – and the resulting print is bluey-black on very heavy grade 8″ x 10″ (American size) yellowish paper.

Dear Sir

Please excuse the delay in answering your letter but I have been in hospital prior to having my baby and your letter was mislaced [sic]. I was going to write to you c/o The Station-Master, Paddington Station as Mr Elston (the [illegible]*) thought this was the best way of contacting you. Then yesterday I found your letter with a gas receipt. I am able to tell you that I have a vacancy from Monday next if you care to accept it for your mother. I remember her very well, and she used to be very fond of my eldest son now [illegible]**. The room I have the vacancy in is the drawing room of Fort Villa (I don’t know if you know the house), it is very pleasant and if possible your mother could easily be walked in the garden (weather permitting). It is a double room but large and airy and if she doesn’t like the idea of sharing would move her to a smaller single room when a vacancy occurs. My fees are 6 gn per week***. The Rev. Powell Price visits here regularly and gives my old people communion if and when they want it. You may come to see the room at your convenience after Sat-Sun of this week and if your mother comes I will do all in my power to make her happy and encourage people I know she knew to visit her.

My regards to your wife and family,

Yours faithfully

Doris Searle

P.S. If you have arranged for your mother elsewhere would you be kind enough to let me know by return. Thank you.

*This word could be either ‘Groom’ or ‘Grocer’, either one of which seems odd. I suspect this is a mystery that may never be solved.

**The same goes for this. It might say ’24yr’ or ’24mn’ or virtually anything in between. There is nothing inherently impossible about Mrs Searle having a son of 24 and yet be planning for another baby – she wouldn’t need to be much more than forty years old, after all, and ‘menopause babies‘ often occur when women’s periods start to become erratic. But it feels indelicate to speculate further about this; Mrs Searle could still be alive, after all.

***6 guineas in 1958 would be roughly £145 now, so you’re looking at a little under £600 per month – albeit sharing a room, and with no (mentioned) specialist nursing services. By the time Alec’s widow, June, required residential care fifty years later the charge would be four times as much – a calculation which will be relevant later in the correspondence.

The next post will upload on 28 April 2019 at 06.00