Helen Woodrow Bones to Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre

Title

Helen Woodrow Bones to Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre

Creator

Bones, Helen Woodrow

Identifier

WWP17513

Date

1915 March 23

Description

Helen Bones updates Jessie on family news, writing about Nell’s pregnancy and her own plans to sew clothes for both babies and gifts for Margaret.

Source

Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Language

English

Text

Darling Jessirite

It makes me so ashamed of myself when you thank me for doing things for you; for goodness knows I take long enough to do them, always, and sometimes forget altogether! The last thing I've done is lose the letter in which you asked me to look for certain books and send them for to you! I have looked high and low for it and can't imagine what has happened to it—for I never tear up a letter until I've attended to the matter it speaks of, no matter how long it takes me. Will you tell me again what the books you wish and whether or not you asked to have something else sent you?I'm always perfectly delighted to do anything I can for you, dear, and to answer any questions that I can—I'm slow that's all.Mac went home from the hospital last night. He is very weak, of course, but he has done remarkably well all along. I think he will do even better at home, for the hospital had gotten on his nerves—it's so noisy and so unattractive in every way. Nell will be much happier with him at home, too. But she has been quite wonderful all through this trial. Her whole disposition seems to have changed utterly since she learned the truth about herself: I haven't seen her so cheerful since last spring.
Now, to answer your questions:We get our milk from Mr. Churchill's farm and Mrs. Jaffray considers it very fine. Perhaps it would be well to ask Dr. B. what he thinks of it; f but I don't see what could be safer than good fresh milk; it would take the Walker-Gordon milk over-night, I should think, to get to you from Boston.
No, there is no crib at Cornish. Of course Your father means to give you one for your birthday and I know he'd be delighted to get it beforehand, but wouldn't you rather have that fresh when you go back to Williamstown? Of course if you would prefer to have it in June, you could pick it out yourself in Boston (you have to go to Boston to get to Cornish, don't you?) and have it sent up. Or I could get it when I go to York Harbor. The baby could sleep in a clothes basket temporarily if you didn't want to go to the expense of having his cradle sent up.
I know Margaret intends to give the baby his coat and I have written her thinking that it might be a good thing to get it in New York. Nell and I are hoping she wont forget to get Woodrow (Nell gets awfully mad when I call it that because she says I'll make it a girl!) a baby blanket; for she has promised him or her one like little Frank's.
About the Holt book, I have heard the little doc say several times that he must send you that book; if he has asked Hoover to order it you'll get it soon. I'll ask H. about it.
I should think Nell would love the little dress Margaret never finished, though I don't think there's any use me trying to get M. to finish it. I'll finish it it you'll let me command her to turn it over to me!What sort of petticoats are you th thinking of making, honey—flannel or cotton? Nell has none so far and she thinks she may have to buy her flannel ones. I don't want her to, because ready-made things cost so much more, and it seems to me she and I ought to get through with the slips (we have six in process of being made and plan for six more) in time to make a few petticoats and trim the bassinet. If you gave her two of either kind of petticoats it would heplp like fury. We thought we would make them fasten in the back, tying them with a silk tape, so they and the dress could all slip on at once. I asked Miss Harkins about the relative advantages of the two kinds and while she was very polite about your kind, she said she thought the back-fastening kind ones a little more convenient and a little neater looking when on. But I don't think Nell would mind if you opened them in front or anywhere else, if you only gave them to her! I tell you, there are some disadvantages in having a baby in six three months! I see now why Providence takes nine months to complete one—it's so as to give the mother time to get a few clothes together!Cousin Annie and L.
A. know about Nell for she had to ask them to get her some sort of dress. The dear little girl is perfectly determined not to tell any one about herself and wont go to a store for cothes or corsets for fear some clerk will run to a newspaper reporter. It's much more comfortable, it seems to me, to take things as you did—as though babies were quite a natural thing to have; and also taking it for granted that people have eyes in their heads and are bound to know whether they are told or not.
No, the rubber corset has no to lace up somewhere and Margaret's laces in front, so yours must be right. I guess what she said was that the lacing was the only opening; you have to pull the corsets on like trousers, when they are part loosely laced.
I'm so sorry you still get tired, sweetie; but I imagine you will not get your strength back for a little while yet. You know it takes a person many months to get over the simplest operation and having a baby is no simple operation, surely—Dr. Grayson to the contrary notwithstanding! (I wish he could have one and he wouldn't think it so little!)How I wish I could see that precious little boy! Miss Harkins says he is too sweet for words, and she tells me she wept large salt tears when she had to leave him. But I don't see how I can get away this spring: Margaret will have to be away so much, getting ready for and singing at the May Festival at Syracuse, that I dont think I can squeeze in a visit to you dear Sayres. But we'll have a beautiful summer together, and how we shall have to sew on Frank Jr'sshort clothes!I saw Maitland's baby a little while ago and he is a darling. She takes him as calmly as though she had had six before him and when the telephone rang while we were there she turned him over to me with, “Will you hold him while I answer that?” whereat I almost passed entirely away with joy. I almost had nervous prostration, though, when Grandma Marshall came in, for she grabbed him and danced him around until even Maitland protested that she would make a nervous baby of t him. I see plainly that there are going to be some fights in that family, for Mrs. M. doesn't seem to care what Maitland wants. Frank would have gasped in horror to see her poking little Jack in the stomach, right after his dinner!I don't know what Margaret would like for her birthday, but I know what she ought to have and that's some sort of dainty thing to wear when she is sitting up in bed. She has nothing in the way of a dressing sack and her dark blue wrapper is not dainty. I'm going to make her one sack, but I don't think it would hurt her to have two. I can't think of anything else and I really don't believe there is much she wants. She also needs pretty boudoir caps, for she is very hard on hers, as you know.Your father said he would think over the matter of going to Williamstown for the Christening. When had you planned to have it? The papers said at Easter, but I imagine that's the papers' own idea, though they did get Agnes Winter in as godmother, which sounds as though some one had given away something. I don't believe there's much danger of our baby going anywhere but to heaven, for with his father's and mother's example before him he is pretty sure to grow up into the kind of man that will go there. But wasn't the little Hoyt girls retort to the other event!Now, this book must be expressed or freighted to you. Goodness! look at the length of it.
And it will be weighed down with love, too. You darling! we miss you every day—but we are glad that since you must be so far away you are with theFranks!With a hug for each of you

Your loving
Cousin Girlie

Original Format

Letter

To

Sayre, Jessie Woodrow Wilson, 1887-1933

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HBtoJWS19150323.pdf

Citation

Bones, Helen Woodrow, “Helen Woodrow Bones to Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre,” 1915 March 23, WWP17513, Jessie Wilson Sayre Correspondence, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.