Open Features: 13 - Anna And Rosie
...She thinks Pa is a good catch, with this big farm. But I can’t imagine she is going to enjoy taking care of all these children as well. She is a silly giggly woman who is not used to hard work, and she talks baby talk to Pa. It makes me sick...
Jean Day continues her story, told in letters, of sisters Rosie and Anna, whose parents were Polish immigrants, living in the Mid West of the USA.
June 1917
Dear Julius,
You’ll never guess what. Pa has announced that he is getting married again, and do you know who to? Martha, who is the widow of your uncle Dominic. So that makes us related, doesn’t it? She is about 35 now I think and Pa is 51 and her two little boys are Frank, who is eight, and Ernie, who is ten.
She thinks Pa is a good catch, with this big farm. But I can’t imagine she is going to enjoy taking care of all these children as well. She is a silly giggly woman who is not used to hard work, and she talks baby talk to Pa. It makes me sick.
I am not staying once she is here. I do not like her. He is so silly to think marrying her will be an answer to his problems. But he is besotted with her.
She says her Dominic took very good care of her and treated her like his baby. Well, I certainly won’t be the one to take care of her now.
I wonder if we could get married sooner than we said, and then I will have a place to go to when I leave here. I have done my bit for the family, and I must think of myself now, and I want to be with you and us to have our own family. I think we should plan to marry maybe just after Christmas and I will have to see if I can get used to living in Sioux City, Iowa.
All my Love
Rosie
