55
As we rarely received any letters from the outside world, I decided to write a farewell letter to my bungalow friends to be read after we left. I felt very sad at leaving them. It seemed like desertion. During these days, Clyde and I had been reading the story of Jacob and as a farewell message, I reminded them that ladders to heaven were everywhere and that the ministering angels found it no further to descend to Stanley than to Lourenco Marques or anywhere else.
I left the letter with Miss Ayrton.
But this reminds me. I received a letter from my daughter Athene, from Chefoo one day. I was told I must hand it back after reading it, and I must not ask how it arrived and I might write half a page back to her. This I did, telling her that when I left Felix Villas her picture was smiling at me from the sitting room, and I said to it, "I'll leave you here because you belong here. We'll play your favourite game of hide-and-seek, but we'll play all over the world. Daddy will be 'it' and we'll see when and where he can get us together again." The last letter I received in camp was the morning of the day before we left. It was from my husband in Shanghai. We had taken our things down for inspection by Japanese gendarmes and the letter had come by a Swiss liaison officer. My husband said he hoped to meet us in Lourenco Marques and hoped also to get the three children from Chefoo to come with him. My mother was also in Chefoo where she had retired to be near the grandchildren and also where her life work had been. My father is also buried there and my mother is sentimental about cemeteries. At last there was no more postponement and with mixed feelings I said goodbye to all the bungalowites. They all stood on the lawn, and it was a great ordeal. There was simply nothing to be said. Clyde pulled his wagon once more. This time we had the bed basket for the baby tied on to it with some food in the basket. Celene pushed the baby in the doll's pram. He filled it comfortably, but fell forward, face on knees when he went to sleep. He got a habit of going to sleep sitting upright and then falling forward on his face.
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