Mattie from Moulton to Hootenannie Hall

Nannie vacated the old house a year or so before the actual demolition. I guess it had become uninhabitable. I was away at college and totally self absorbed. How often I have wished I cared more at that age about other things than myself. Maybe I would have picketed the destruction of history.

January 5, 1965

Wednesday Night

Dear Sarah and Bill,
When I think of the fact that you two are giving me fifty-two gifts in 1965, bringing 365 days of pleasure and information to me, it is hard to word my thanks.
This can’t be a real letter as life presses hard and there is little time I can call my own. If—
“The cares that infest the day will fold their tents like the Arabs and as silently steal away”
maybe I can write a real letter soon. I owe more notes than usual. Am at Hootenannie tonight, sitting on the side of my bed by a small table.
Bell T.&T. promises to move my phone Friday. Kindness prevails out here (Anna Mae Shook Aldridge brought me the best cake I ever tasted on New Year’s Day) and I like it here but have the delusion that I’ll be going home before long. Maybe it’s because “One sweetly solemn thought came to me o’er and o’er. I am nearer home today than I ever have been before.”…
Love and wonderful wishes for health and happiness for all of you in A.D. 1965.
Mattie

Of course, I wonder if  the "home" she mentioned was her heavenly one or was it her home waiting for its execution.