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Manor House Hospital
FOLKESTONE. Eng.
Jan.24/16
Dear Mercy:
I wrote you immediately after
getting your letter from Iowa. Have
received no reply presume there
is one on the way. Got a long
letter from Mrs. Pat. this morning
written on my birthday. She says
you are back in Harley again
happy in your old home. I
wish I could drop in for a few
minutes and talk to you instead
of writing. I believe we could
enjoy one another's society
right up to the hilt for a while
at least, don't you? The Iowa
people seem to have appreciated
your company quite as much as
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you did theirs. Many complimentery
tributes to you are being mentioned
in their letters to me.
I am still in bed Mercy but
hope soon to be up. I could get
around now easily on crutches
but any movement still causes a
hemorrage on my leg. This will
soon be over though and once
again I shall be able to shake
the dust from my heels. We
have really a happy time here
among ourselves. One gets so well
acquainted with the other patients
and the nurses that they seem like
so many brothers and sisters.
I shall be sorry to part with
them when the time comes ---
and yet be glad. Never before since
I was an infant-in-[illegible] have I
been compelled to lie on my back
and be waited on hand and
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foot and I find the experience
anything but agreeable. No it goes
against the grain to lie here and
watch these ladies perform the
minimal duties attendant to a
helpless patient. Happy I shall
be when I'm a sound man again.
Ah, that word "man" just reminds
me that Mrs. Pat recalled to me this
morning the "tragedy of the bathtub"
that happened three years ago when
I became a man. How time does
fly! It seems but yesterday
since I had that unpleasant
awakening.
Best of good wishes for you
Sincerely yours
Alva E Metcalfe
