Elena 
Tuesday, October 14, 1958
DearMaryrose:
Well yesterday I said I would write you a longer letter; so here it is.
First of all, I wonder if you have seen any of the ceremonies on the death and burial of the Pope. They were certainly impressive and beautiful and should make the rest of the sheep outside the fold sit up and take notice. Frank Blair of “Today” is in Rome, and has covered everything so well.
The night that the Pope died we had such a queer electrical storm, I have never seen another like it. There was very little rain. It started about 8 p.m. and by 11 p.. it was something to see. It just seemed that the heavens would crack open from the eastern horizon to the western then it would shift from the northeast to the southwest, the streaks of lightening seemed to sometimes just make almost a circle above. We got the news about 10:30 that Pius XII had just died. The storm lasted until daylight I guess because I’d wake up and could still see the flashes.
No we don’t get very many letters from anyone. What we do get are quite startling,, as for example the enclosed one from Aunt Leona. The only reason I think she wrote this one was because she knew Mom was to be home about this time and didn’t want the marriage to be too much of a shock. But at that we missed the letter. We left on Wednesday morning and the letter got here on Thursday. What Leona doesn’t tell in the letter is that this man has been married before. In fact had lived with his wife for 5 years and she has supposedly died. We don’t know the truth of the whole thing, and I won’t ask, but someday it will all come out. First Pete (my grandma’s brother) said that they didn’t even know the man and then Leona in her letter say that they had forbidden Mary to even see him. Don’t write to Leona, not about this anyway, as you can see by the letter she just doesn’t want to talk about it.
I am enclosing a letter from Aunt Irene too, she evidently hears from Leona once in a while. I know it has hit Leona and Pete very hard but there just isn’t anything to do, but pray and pray and if he is a scoundrel, maybe the so-called marriage won’t last and someday she may find herself a good man. She had a nice farmer boy from a town nearby, Petersburg, but maybe he wasn’t fast enough. Pete should have gotten a tip-off because just before they left here on Monday, I asked her when she would be married, in a kidding way of course, and she laughingly said, “oh, not long!”
Of course all of them down there had talked it over and thought they wouldn’t say anything, just let Pete or Leona tell Mom. She called Frances, your Aunt Frances and she told her. Well it about knocked Mom over her feet. Pete came over Thursday night and asked me if I had heard the news. Of course I said no. So he proceeded to tell me about it.
Leona says in her letter that Mary called about 11 PM that night, but Pete said they didn’t hear until Sunday night about 11p.m. after he had gone to the police and they found him, that is Mary’s husband, after Pete talked with him at the police station, they went to the apartment where they were living and Pete asked them to come home and talk things over. I guess they did the next day, but from the sound of things, Mary just doesn’t go home. It’s to bad, because she needs her mother now more than she ever did, but she is just 21 and she is going to flaunt her independence regardless. Evidently outside of not telling Pete and Leona, Mary and Mr. Cox weren’t too secretive because they got their marriage license right in Springfield, and many people saw the notification in the papers. She is such a queer girl, no one seems to be able to reach her. I thought she was close to Leona but evidently not. Much of all the trouble could rest with Leona, because she covered so many underhanded things that Mary did from Pete. Loretta always blamed Pete for the things that went on there, now she is beginning to wonder maybe she wasn’t wrong to place the blame for everything on Pete.
So much for the scandal in the family. Calvin finished filling his silo yesterday; he is happy about that. Now they have to pick the rest of the corn. Dad looked the picker over and found why it wasn’t getting every ear, so he fixed it. You know it is quite wonderful that Dad is such a good mechanic. He bought that picker so reasonably, now that it is fixed both of them are very happy about it. They packed the barn with hay and I mean packed. Dad had to put in some supports because chopped hay packs so and if it were loose, they would have only gotten about half of it in the mow. I have canned two bushels of peaches and about 40 quarts of tomatoes. I put about 16 pints of corn in the freezer. Our pears are beautiful this year, so one of these days I shall can pears.
Our weather is nice, of course we got a little frost but at that the frost was later than a lot of years. My flowers are mostly dead, but a few still show their lovely faces. Today, well it is beautiful. I look at our woods and they are a mass of different shades of gold, brown and red. I always wondered why the maple in the front didn’t turn pretty colors, well it doesn’t have to, because right at the edge of the small woods is a maple that is the most beautiful thing of crimson red, and shading to brilliant gold, so nos I won’t care so much that the front lawn tree isn’t very pretty, I can look out the kitchen window and see this other one.
Haven’t heard from home since I took Mom home. I wonder what the doctor said about her. Hope she is better. I miss her around here so much. She was a great one to make one smil9e when she noticed that you were down. Believe me, she was a gift from heaven after you left home.
Running out of paper, so must close now. God bless you honey, – Mother
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