A Caring History

Among the personal documents my maternal grandmother left to her only daughter, my mother, which then came to me, was a letter written on March 16, 1949 [full text below] from a woman in Holland. She and her family had lost everything in World War II; she wrote to my grandmother to thank her for sending a CARE package.

My grandmother was 58 when she received this letter. Her beloved husband had died in 1946, after suffering a severe stroke several years earlier. Their three sons had fought in World War II and returned home, unharmed. She had nine grandchildren by this time, with five more yet to come.

How I wish my grandmother had shared this letter with me when I was a child, spending time with her at her home in Virginia each summer! I remember hearing about CARE packages in the 1950s, and would have been fascinated to learn that my grandmother had sent one and heard back from the recipient.

And I couldn’t help wondering, as I read this 65-year-old letter again, how much we are losing of our own personal histories when handwritten notes are becoming rarer and rarer. What will our grandchildren and their children know of us?


de Bilt 16 March ’49

Dear Mrs. Werth,

Because I had forgotten Your address, You have heard of me so late! Escuse me therefore, please.

But last week I have found it under different papers and now I will hasten to write You directly. I cannot write English well, but I will do it to the best of my ability, and when You will answer my letter, please write so plain as it is possible.

Mrs. Werth, it was with great pleasure and feeling a great sense of thankfulness that I received Your parcel from C.A.R.E. at New York. All You have send was very very welcome and I and my family could use it with a thankful thought. Our America’s friends are full of care for us and for the people the whole world over.

I am Miss Roest and I and my family were bombed in Rotterdam by an offensive of the British air force* in March 1943 whereby in 5 minutes all we possess was lost. Now my sister and I live in the village the Bilt near the town Utrecht, because the whole surrounding in Rotterdam were put down and is till to-day not build up again. My sister is protestant and I am a Christian Scientist, member of Rotterdam.

I will now finish and hope You can understand my English. Shall be glad to hear something from You in return.

With kind regards,
Miss K. Roest
Wilhelminalaan 48
the Bilt, Holland


* …during a raid on the [Rotterdam] shipyards and dock area, the United States Army Air Forces accidentally bombed a residential area, killing hundreds. Until the 1990s, the raid that took place on 31 March 1943 was not mentioned in local school history lessons about the region’s wartime experiences. (Wikipedia)