31. August 1945

Laura Meller Strait [daughter of Eugenie Meller-Miskolczy]

13. Furber Rd. Paddington (Sydney)

N.S.W. Australia

Dear Rozsika and Franciska!

My answer is long overdue to your kind inquiring letter, but even now I was hesitating to sit down and write. We did not get news from home since last year April ans since we wait every day with palpitations the postman, every day twice, who always comes with empty hands. It is terrific this deadly silence!

We saw newspapers, published in Debrecen, we heard about elections in Budapest, about the work of the new government, we saw pictures and articles about Hungary but no personal news reached yet us. We made inquiries through the Red X; no answer. And since no letters, money, parcels can be send [sic!] to Hungary, we just have to wait, wait and wait.

I was sorry to read, that you were not well! Do you get still your X Rays Rosika? Or dod your doctors stop with it?

We are fairly well! Leslie is grown up to 6 feet, and I think it is quite a record with his 14 years. He is going to a high school (like the real gymnasium at home) from where he hopes to get to the university in three more years; he wants to be an architect. He draws well. He began to play on his cello, and managed to get in an orchestra of youth study.

Susen is 17 years old and does her leaving year (now) and we hope that she will get to the University for medicine or arts (she did not decide quite firmly yet) next year.

My husband is still in his old work, at the Main Roads Department; the poor man sacrificed all his holidays the last three years, for my sake, as I am still not ready with my examinations at the University. All the same, we still hope for the best and fight for the future!

I am sorry that I would not write happier and more satisfactory news, sorry for ourselves too, but I promise, that I will write you as soon as I hear or get some!

I hope too, that you understand why I did not write immediately!

Yours very sincerely

Lori

New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division. Rosika Schwimmer Papers, Box 421.