Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland
15 March 1943
Sweetheart,
I love you, Alice Harvey, and nothing's going to stop that as long as I breathe I promise to be more careful about that happening, I swear; I've had more than enough time in a hospital - I'd rather not repeat this experience. (Good, we don't want him here either, grumpy bastard. He's a good man, but Lord do we want him to be well underway of getting out of here. - E).
Edith has a strange way of showing her friendship, but I appreciate it immensely; besides your letters and books, Edith's visits are very entertaining, to say the least, and she's keeping me up to date on medical jargon for when I get out of here. I think between her and you, I could help out at the medical tents if need be, but we'll have to see what shape the boys are in once I'm out… I'm not looking forward to hearing about the casualties.
Speaking of casualties, I heard back from Moran - the man I saved when I got injured - he's doing better, but he'll be sent back home… can't do much without a leg in the field. He'll be in Melbourne (the lucky bastard), so if you keep an ear out for any war veterans with that name, pass on my regards? I've already written back to him, but I want him to know he's not going to be forgotten by me once I go back. The boys will be so jealous that he got to meet you before they did, but I don't think Moran has many people who care about him back home as I do… I don't know… I just… you don't have to, sweetheart, but I'm sure it would make him happy to see someone besides the hospital staff and he could use a friend like I've got one in Edith.
(I briefly saw Moran when he first arrived, it's bad, Allie… but he could use the pick-up if you have some time to spare. I know you're busy between school and work, so don't feel obligated to visit or spend hours with the man. Matthew and I are both going to write to him as long as Matthew's in the hospital. - E)
Send me a bill of whatever you get for Addy, I'll contribute to some of her spoiling as long as I'm away from home.
I don't think the war will be over by the time I recover either, sweetheart, and that's… been an adjustment, to say the least. Edith's helping me get up to speed, and helping me with any doubts about returning to the front… she's an angel in disguise for a lot of us soldiers here, you'd be proud of her. I wish I could come home too, but we've waited this long, we can wait some more, can't we? Besides, there's still the slight hope I might be able to come to your graduation (think I can fake needing to be in the hospital in order to delay the inevitable leave-taking and I can nip down to Melbourne for the ceremony? Think I'd get away with it?)
(Well certainly not now that I know what he's plotting, honestly this man… - E)
Some of the grumpiness was related to hunger, but I'm honestly an overall grump most days (Only most? - E); Edith does get a bit… rough with the needles on the grumpy days. Everyone's human, though, right? (I'll work on it, I promise.)
Oh good, we've got family plotting for where we'll live once the war is over. I wouldn't mind taking up Jack on his offer, so long as you're guaranteed to be my roommate, sweetheart. We'll live in Melbourne for a bit, get more experience under our belts and fix up the Ballarat house before we move in there. It's a solid plan, I like it, and it gives me something to daydream about (any particular requests for the garden? I've already started mapping out where some plants will go).
Rose is more than welcome to visit, so long as we're notified beforehand - I don't want any surprises when we've got time off.
You can get excited over pathology, sweetheart, just maybe save the truly gruesome bits for when we're washing up. I can't wait to solve crimes with you.
I'm sorry to hear that neither Hugh nor I will meet Ed or serve with him, but I'll keep an ear out for him if we're ever on a RAN ship; it sounds like he's got a lot more going on than we soldiers do - nothing's truly easy or simple in this war. I'm glad you've found a friend in Lorraine, she sounds exactly like someone you need to have near you during all of this; she sounds like an extremely empathetic person, and I know you might need someone else to turn to whenever you need it.
Christopher Jr. has always been far older than he needs to be at his age… I think he feels the weight of expectations on his shoulders, especially now during the war and his father is gone from home… he might open up to you though, Christopher mentioned that Jean noticed him gravitate towards you during your visits. You're a better help to Jean and the farm than I could be, carpentry and gardening I can do, mechanical know-how I severely lack (I guess it's good that you like it and we can switch the expected tasks at home. You can work on the car and in case the lawnmower breaks down, I can fix the house and garden and fix dinner for you after a long day at the hospital.)
(You two are certainly going to be an odd sort of couple, but it's very endearing to hear a man be willing to admit that he lacks knowledge and expertise in certain areas. I'll be certain to visit once you two settle. - E)
Drina being a societal deviant? I'm really sad I'm missing the entertainment; just imagining the look on Jack's face at facing not only Miss Fisher, but now a younger version of her had me in stitches for a concerning amount of time, sweetheart. Pass on my sympathy to him, would you?
We'll adopt all the cats you want, sweetheart, and only temporarily babysit the babies, I promise.
Edith's somewhat promised to stop exaggerating so much in her letters to Clara; I did help her come up with some of them so I suppose I have to take on some of that blame, sweetheart. It was all in good fun, but we'll stop. I do love you and I love all of your "hardly romantic" letters.
(About those romance novels though… are they any good? Might have to read them for research.)
(Oh now you've gone and done it, Alice. He'll be incorrigible about this until I get copies for him. - E)
We do need more people like Mum in the world… maybe they could have stopped this war from happening within the first six months. She's a great mum and she did what she had to do with the choices she'd made; that was something she always stressed to me and Vera: we could make whatever choices we wanted to, we just had to be willing to live with whatever consequences came about from it. Hasn't steered me wrong yet, and that was with the tough learning experiences included.
My old man was… someone I never wanted to become, and I think it's why I never had a lot of serious relationships growing up. I had a lot of people who left me, not a lot of people stayed outside of my family. Lucien left, my father left, some of the girls I dated left me for others (I don't fault them, we wanted different things.) It made me realize that I needed to figure myself out rather than waiting for someone to come and tell me who to be, and while it took a while and it was hard some days to work through all that my father had done, and the hurt I'd experienced growing up, I'm grateful that it helped me realize who I wanted to be… and it's also not half-bad that it led me in the direction of you, sweetheart.
Jean's family (outside of her parents) are very, very staunch religious people - her parents were too, don't get me wrong, but they put family first over the church, and while Jean and Christopher had to deal with the consequences of their decisions, she wasn't thrown out on her arse by her parents - something she took comfort in when they lost the baby not long after the wedding. Christopher does have honor (he's got his pride, but usually the honor outweighs the ego), and if he hadn't married her, our friendship might have had a different path. I'm sure Jean does appreciate having you in her corner, sweetheart, I know I do. You're a fierce protector of those you love, and it would be very entertaining to see you go toe to toe with Jean's extended family.
My shoulder is improving, I might try to write the next letter on my own (or part of it at least), so I apologize if the legibility plummets.
Yours, Always,
Matthew
