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Today we have a letter from Helene’s nephew Robert Zerzawy to his cousin Eva in San Francisco. He is writing from Cologne, Germany, although he resided in London. The first part  of the letter is written in German and the rest in English (in italics below).  

                                                                        Cologne 11, September 1965

Dear Eva,

How guilty I still feel to have dumped my worries on you. If I had suffered as much as you and took it on courageously, I would be seeking sympathy and support - you have two operations behind you. I hope that in between you have recovered somewhat. I hope that you can manage, at least as a beginning, to handle your house affairs, and soon get additional strength so that you can begin to do your work a little bit at a time. OK, I send you my best wishes for your complete recovery. After a normal illness, one should be well on the way to recovery, but you will need a little more time. I hope all went well and your recovery is proceeding nicely.

The newspaper clipping with the marvelous picture of your mother and the happy news that she won the $1000 jackpot gave me unexpected joy. She really looks marvelous, so sweet and you can truly be proud of her. I only wish that I could see her and take her in my arms and somehow convey my love and tenderness I feel for her. No doubt you will do this for me until I shall be able to write more fully.

Just now I am here to sort out a few problems with my late employers - which I fear can affect my pension in a serious way, and as usual in such giant firms like Bayer it is difficult to obtain a straightforward settlement owing to the many departments and principals involved.

I was able to get away for a little while as relations of a friend of mine took the house for three weeks - a break, I need, to try and find some way to get out of the present entanglement, which I hope, will be easier if one can gain some distance and get things better in perspective.

A few days after your welcome birthday telegram came by airmail a copy in an envelope and I was struck by Helen’s unchanged and concise handwriting. I am glad to learn that in your estimation she is doing well physically for her years. I will write her, as I said before, as soon as I find more time in my « holiday » whenever this might be. Just now I am in the Rhineland, but want to travel farther south, perhaps also to Vienna, where I have an invitation by a titular cousin, Anton Zerzawy, a veterinarian, with whom I got friendly by correspondence.

Many thanks for the addresses and telephone numbers. It certainly will be a help and great impulse for our future contact.

Dear Eva, have thousands thanks that in spite of your obstacles and handicaps you wrote me so fully and put my mind - to some extent - to rest. Now I only wish that you get well over your various operations and hospital treatments. Give my love to your mother, Harry and family, Helen Rose and Paul, and again my warmest thanks for your letter. After the trying times I wish and hope that a better spell will come for you - you certainly deserve it.

 With my love,
Robert

Robert refers to the article we saw in the April 9 post, when Helene won $1,000 through a contest by the San Francisco Examiner. In the March 23 post, we saw a letter that. Robert wrote to Helene in 1966, where he mentions the contest and Eva’s surgeries. I was 5 or 6 when my mother was ill, so I have no sense of how serious the illnesses and surgeries were. My mother was stoic and had a high tolerance for pain, and she would never have wanted me to be anxious about her, so I never worried. I have a hazy memory of visiting her in the hospital once or twice. Since my mother was a nurse, and because my early experiences of hospitals were that people went in to get better and then came out, I do not have a fear of visiting hospitals that some people have. My mother passed to me her faith in the medical profession, as well as a desire to avoid seeking medical assistance unless absolutely necessary!