12.8.69 [handwritten]
Dear Mum, I’ll address this and the next few I write to the
hospital, although there should be a couple lying at home for you if someone
hasn’t already collected them. By this time I suppose you’ll have had either
one or both of your ops, and will be well on the way to organising races up and
down the Ward with anyone else who cares to take you on! There’s one thing I must
sort out ˗ I meant to do it last time but forgot. I received a notice to pay my
next lot of Francisco money recently and I have a Postal Note for £3 here to do
it. What I want to say is that I hope you haven’t worried about it, because I really
think it’s up to me to pay it, even though I’m still not earning anything
especially. Just in case you’ve been the usual Good Samaritan that you always are and have paid it, I’ll put a note in to Mrs O’Flaherty saying that she
should put the extra £3 onto the next quarter. Will you let me know so that I know how things stand?
Today it is raining, although it’s still very warm
(temperatures have been in the 80s and upwards for over a week!) This is the
first rain since I arrived here. David’s fourth friend did come to the beach on Sunday. His name is John and he’s about to
do his final two years at a Theological College before becoming a Minister. He’s
much the same age as all the other friends ˗ between twenty-two and
twenty-three ˗ (it’s amazing what a variety of youths you can get at that age)
˗ and quite the liveliest of the four. He’s also the most popular with the
Syrus parents (David reckons I come a close second!), but it seems that the other
three boys I met don’t bother to try and communicate with an older generation.
We went in the sea four times that day, and stayed longer
than usual because for the first time we had a ball to play with, and that kept us all playing around a lot more. John and I seemed to be the most energetic
of the lot (!) ˗ we stayed in longer than the others on at least one occasion
and were at the forefront of the various other activities that went on (like
building a sandcastle (my second childhood this!) and playing a sort of
catch-ball on the sands.) David’s father came in too (as he had at Camber) and
thoroughly enjoyed himself. He’s much more cheery when he’s in the water (!) and
laughs and clowns around pretty energetically. The previous night he and Mrs
and David and I had stayed up discussing religiou till 2 am ˗ the parents are Methodists,
and David leans towards Anglicanism. (He’s been to Church with me both Sundays.
The discussion didn’t really gete anywhere ˗ except perhaps to clear up my own
ideas. Mr S is pretty staunchly Methodist. Love, Mike.
