Thonon, 21 March 1942

My dear Lore,

(English in original) I am very happy to have received your letter from the 4.12.41 (3.11). It arrives here on the 11 February. Have you got my letter of the 11 January? You see I do not know if I must use from or of. – During 5 months I did not hear from you, and you? – I shall try to write 5 letters directly and I will number its from 1 to 5. Besides, I send you another letter by Mr. K.

Well, I think you know that I continue my study. I already have got better marks than in the first term. In English we learn from time to time a poetry such as “Persevere”, - “The village blacksmith” of H.W. Longfellow. – “The daffodils” of Wordsworth, and we learn now “Pioneers! O Pioneers” which was written by an American poet. I prefer “Persevere”, do you know it? We are learning the poetries for obtaining a better pronunciation.

(French in original) I am going to continue in French for otherwise I am going to run out of time to finish the letter.  I want to tell you first that I have safely received your card from the 8 January. Last week I wrote a letter to Uncle Max and I hope that he received it.

Now listen well, my dear Lore. You tell me that you sent a letter to Ernest for him to send to me. You most probably know that I have not heard anything from him since his last letter in July and that I wrote 6 letters to him.  Therefore I am going to wait and see if his letter is going to arrive this time. But if you know his current address and you are thinking of sending him a letter, then I ask you to write the following to him: Tell him that I am sorry not to have any more of his news and that I have tried to write to him several times. Tell him furthermore, that I received safely the money that he had sent to me and that I was paid 430 frs here.  That’s all.

The Easter holidays are going to start in a few days, on the 28th March and they will last until the 13th April. I don’t know what I am going to do and for once I would prefer that weren’t any even. That maybe seems funny but it’s like that.

Do you know what I would really like to wish for if I could? Ah well!  It would be to be six months older than now, a little closer to my next birthday. I don’t believe that one often wishes to be older than one is.

I am still currently undergoing treatment at the dentists. – I had to have three teeth filled. I also had to go back to the optician but it is difficult to find glasses.  I ordered them several weeks ago already and I hope all the same that they will arrive soon.  

Do you live outside of the school now? If this is the case, I think that you are very happy with it. What does Elaine do? And your “male friend”?  Do you believe that I should send a letter to Uncle Nat for once? If you can send me some coupons I will be very pleased.

I think that I have told you everything and I hope that the letter arrives safely. Write to me soon and often and still to the same address.

I give you a kiss from afar.

Your Oswald.

Hello to all the relatives.