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Letters of an Abiding Faith:

Legacy of a Slave's GrandDaughter to her Son

written by Ella Lewis to her Son (Rudolph Lewis)
 

 

Letter 24

 

November 23, 1983

My Dear Son,

Just a Few lines to give answer to your most Kind and Welcomed letter which I received a Few days pass. I hope these Few lines may Find you in the Best of health. I Been in Bed often For last 2 weeks. I had a cold pain in my side. The Doctor say it was Bronchitis which mean a Cold. Every Body here have that cold. I going Back to the Doctor Tomorrow which is 23 of Nov.

Look here I dont want you be courting so hard Because as you know all of them is Same. Just want all they can get so dont let them hook you. You is too Far from home. I dont want no one to hurt you.* You stop getting drunk you is too Far From home.

So you Be Careful. Did you get the money Bunk sent. I hope you did. I do wish you would rite a little often. I worry when I dont hear from From you Because I love you. I hope you love me too as a Mother.

Are you Coming home For Xmas. If you are let me know. Listen Doc what between you and Lucinda try to forget. I know you think about it But try not let it get next to you. If she lied her lies she got live with it the rest of her life.* *

So think of me who really love you. And will always Stand by you. It not good to worry too much. I worry a lot But I carry my cries to God. I leave them there and let Him work it out.

Some Thing I want to ask you when you come home. And if you dont come home For Xmas I rite ask you. How is your Car holding up. Bunk all going to Baltimore 24th Thanksgiving. I not I had to give my money to the Doctor. I had one tooth pulled it give me lot of trouble. The Dentist Broke it Off. Left part Root in my gum. All send love to you. This all Mother rite to night. Rite more next time So you be sweet. Take care of your self and Eat Well.

Love Mother

 

 
 

  Commentary

*Mama had a dear brother named Tom who went to Hackensack, New Jersey in the mid-1920s and he disappeared without a trace. Some felt he was killed and his body tossed in the river. Mama had those fears that the same would happen to me. For her, and many country people, the city was a dangerous place which captured and destroyed people and their innocence.

**Still another reference to my occasional bouts of identity. Why I was troubling Mama with the issue again I don’t recall. These questions of identity started early for me when I was a child, between six and eight years old. All my aunts went along with the fiction that they were my sisters, except Sistuh, Mam's oldest daughter Virginia. She insisted that she was my aunt to the point of driving me to tears. I would then run to Mama and ask her to affirm that she was my mama. And she would say, "Sure, I'm your mama. Sistuh, doesn’t know what she talking about." Siblings often play such cruel games.

 

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