to: Miss Eleanor Henderson, 211 East Delaware, Chicago 11 Illinois Friday A.M. Nov 18, 1955 My dear Eleanor: Your good letter Air Mail of the 15th was in the box when I reached home last evening after a three hours journey from down town out here only about 5 miles. A very heavy snow storm that upset all traffic almost to a standstill was the cause. Well to get to your letter. It is quite some time I feel sure since I wrote to your father but of course your wire [?] which may have proved Providential in hindering me, was very timely but your letter speaks of him failing, and when I last saw him at the Hooper Rest home he looked as well as I have seen him in recent years, for he had good color and he seemed as alert as always. Now Eleanor, please dont let him or yourself get disturbed about Aunt Bess. She was for the last five months living in a private home here in Seattle for it was impossible for me to have her back here while I am away working each day. She was so forgetful about placing things on the electric range and going away to strum on the piano, to come back and find the food and the pans ruined. She had good attention at Mrs. Godwins home ($100.00 a month) but on three occasions she slipped out of the house there, the last time just as it was beginning to get daylight. So Mrs. Godwin first called Dr Ramsay a Scot whom we all know and like and so does Aunt Bess, but no one knew where she had gone, so Mrs. Godwin called the police and it was four or five yours later that they picked her up in one of the suburbs but now knowing where she was going or how to get back. That having happened three times Mrs. Godwin had to give up, but she didnt want to for the money she was getting was very welcome. Now Dr Ramsay suggested the Sedro Wooley Hospital, for he told us the patients there get real helpful attention, and since quite a large number of them come back normal, we knew that she would have to be taken care of where constant attention could be given her. Dont think for a moment Eleanor that your Aunt Bess was railroaded. Care that none of us could give her had to be acknowledged. It is a week today since she went to the Sedro Wooley hospital and while they dont allow even relatives to see the newly arrived patients for ten days after their arrival -- probably Uncle Bob and his new wife will be going up there next week. Aunt Bess has no difficulty in recognizing any of us of the family and if I can persuade Dr Ramsay to take a run up there before long -- no doubt Aunt Bess will be delighted to see him. If you think your father would be disturbed by hearing of her being there just now, maybe it would be well not to tell him, but I rather think that when you can honestly tell him she is in a first class Hospital, he might react to it favorably. As regards his going home, I cant really make any suggestion, for while he would feel lonely during the day, it would brighten him up to know you would be coming home at night. I know dear, you are doing the very best you know for him, but your work always seems to exact a lot of your attention and strength. As to Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary coming to Seattle I can hardly think that would be advisable just now, for it would be quite an undertaking and although Aunt Bess constantly inquires about your father and Uncle Jim, as well as myself, I have been able to tell her about us all, but as I was leaving her after the preliminary tests at Harbor-View Hospital here prior to going to Sedro Woolley she asked me if I lived in London now, so you see Eleanor she has no idea now of either *time* or place. I'll give over your new letter to both Robert and Esther, and let them pass on any suggestion. Lovingly Uncle Tom A Post Script from the Lab. The bonds that Aunt Bess had are all in Roberts care as Legal guardian for her except that those that have been used so far in her care. These were about $1200.00 of them but some no doubt have been used. I dont follow that for though I could have been her Legal Guardian, the fact that I am more than 3 years older than she, I didn't think it wise so I suggested Robert and he was accepted. Things written at serious times and under close family conditions often dont sound when read in a letter in the way they are intended, but believe me your Aunt Bess is loved fully as much here as in Chicago and I am sure you must understand. Again Lovingly, Uncle Tom #