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Letter ReferenceSchreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/35
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date26 June 1898
Address FromThe Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToHenrietta (‘Ettie’) Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891)
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. Schreiner was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898.
1 June 26th 1898
2
3 Darling
4
5 I am, in a way, glad you are going to Robertson for a little while. I
6know so well that longing to be near the grave of one you love, &
7people are quite mistaken in believing in intensifies ones ones pain,
8its often the only real comfort ones heart has. But I do wish when you
9have been at Robertson a little while you could get away to some
10complete change. It’s many years since you were at Balfour. I wish
11too I could go there & see the old father’s grave. I am pregnant
12again, but am still only in the second month, so don’t mention it to
13any one, the little mother should be so pained if she heard it from
14others first. I shall not be taken ill till the end of January or
15beginning of February.
16
17 I am feeling very well, but for the sickness in the morning. Money
18troubles weigh on me the most, the thought that if I die I shall not
19leave my baby one farthing, & Cron has his mother & sister to provide
20for who are of course his first consideration. That is the only
21thought that takes away my joy, but I may get well & strong after its
22birth, & be able to work on a few years longer. If I can once get
23£400 put by for it in case of my death I shall be quite happy.
24
25 Yes, dear I had a most curious tenderness for Stakesby. Its more than
26once as I lay awake at night that I wrote long letters to him telling
27him how much I sympathized with him & knew how bravely he was bearing
28up, but when the morning came I was always too tired. That was before
29you went up to Bulawayo. I knew the sign of death on him him that
30rainy day when you drove me up to the Highlands a
31
32 Good bye my own darling.
33 Your Olive
34
35 I am so well as far as asthma &c goes but the continual sickness on
36the stomach that one suffers from at such times makes it impossible
37for me to write much.
38