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| Friday October 9th 2015 "letter" from Fr. Hattie received via email. |
Below is my transcription of the latest "letter" I received from Fr. Hattie via email. It arrived on Friday October 9th. Like his previous letter, the date is significant. October 9th is the anniversary of the birth of John Lennon of The Beatles. (I'm sure that Fr. Hattie didn't plan this one).
As usual, I have taken the liberty of tinting the scan to recall the Aerogram letters he used to send from overseas (all those years ago). Hopefully, my transcription will make it easier to read Father's letter. If you are game, click on the letter and a larger image will open and you can try reading that. Since Father manually types his letters on a typewriter, sometimes a letter or two comes out too faint; or the wrong letter is punched (and there is no going back). If you spot a mistake in my transcription, please let me know. Thanks!
For a list of other letters from Fr. Hattie that I have posted, see my Fr. Hattie page. In addition to the list of letters, there is information on how to donate to help Father's orphans in Nsumba, Uganda.
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My dear Rick: Peace of the Risen Christ!
Many thanks for your suggestion about a new way of fundraising.[1] But, to tell you the truth(s); I know veritably nothing about Computers, still less about Facebook, etc.; I have also come to the age where my days of fundraising are over. I just can't keep up with it. I take what I get & thank the donors & hope that they will continue giving. Besides, typing with 2 fingers & with 1 eye closed has become a real burden. I have enough of it as it is. But, many thanks for the suggestion.
Sincere thanks, too, for your latest generous Gift of $XX.YY for our kids (they're yours, too). They will be most grateful and thank God for you and you know that God hears the prayers of kids.
I don't mean to shock you but .....when my African Provincial comes to visit me here at the end of Oct., I am going to BEG him to allow me to return to Africa with one of our African priests who is presently studying in the US for I know that I won't be allowed to make the trip alone. When I volunteered for India in '47, I made a VOW to live and die in the Missions [2] & I want to do just that. Please pray that I'm doing the right thing and that I'll get permission. Just now, Africa is in a horrible mess, as usual, and maybe my prayers will help to change things. I'll keep you posted.
Tons of love & gratitude,
Fr. Gene, SJ
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Notes:
[1] I mailed Fr. Hattie and Sr. Christine a news story about a family in my area that is raising funds for another orphanage in Uganda. They also have a Facebook page for their fund raising. I thought that an electronic approach might take some of the burden off them, especially if they could get help from some younger, more savvy folks (Sr. Christine works in RC High School). But Father doesn't seem to understand.
[2] This is my best guess at the jumbled type in this line. I think it is very likely since the keys are adjacent to the ones he pushed. His hands probably slipped a key from the home keys. I do the same thing too often.
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Links:
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2015/08/many-things-have-happened.html
https://rockhall.com/inductees/john-lennon/bio
https://rockhall.com/inductees/the-beatles/bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html
http://www.westhartfordnews.com/articles/2015/08/13/news/doc55cba4ab5bc00747405797.txt
http://www.typingmaster.com/typing-tutor/touch-typing.asp
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Written Monday 26 October 2015
