August 26, 1919? (Still looking for help)

August 26, 1919?                                            

722 Second Avenue South

Minneapolis Minnesota

Dear Miss Marsh,

Our little boy continues to gain in strength and will be able to walk soon.  He sits up alone now and can stand by holding to something but gets tired very soon.  He is just crazy to get around and feel and investigate everything, and as he cannot yet walk it keeps us busy.  He knows all his old toys and knows that he is home.  We sit him at the table now and let him feed himself and he does better than most normal children.

We simply don’t have the time to teach him as we should for I must be at the office and Mrs. Chapman has no help and it keeps her humping.  But we have a few signs taught him.  And we talk so much to him by placing his hand to our face or by placing our face next to his.  One day he put one of his hands to his own throat and the other to my throat and told me that “Noise goes right down there”.  And I have got him so that I will say “Boo” and he will repeat it after me, having one of his hands on my throat and the other on his own.  But he gets tired so quickly and is so interested in other things that only once in a while can we get him interested in what we try to do.

He is such a good boy all the time and talks almost as much as he ever did, of which we are very thankful.  And he seems happy and contented and that of course makes it easier for us. 

We don’t know yet what we can do about a teacher for him.  I have got to get squared away better from the big financial drain of the past three months* before I can do much, and that will be a couple more months before I can feel that I can stand the expense.  He is going to learn very fast.

With very best wishes from us both I am sincerely, Winthrop S. Chapman

*By financial drain my grandfather was a doctor and for three months he was totally focused on trying to save his child's life.  In addition, I have found more information. Tad became sick in May 1919 while in Watertown, South Dakota, and was taken to the hospital in Minneapolis and brought back to Redfield in August 1919 when these letters start. That's a lot of hospital bills plus money they would have spent to stay in town near him. They also would have had to make arrangements for Tom who was two years older (aged 6). - JB