Last Visit to the Old House #2; The Letter

This is the attic of the attic - you'd need a ladder to get up there, but that was the spot where we found lots of letters and magazines from the Low period - 1908 - 1917.  Forrest's bedroom is on the right below the attic.

 A few weeks ago both Gene and Craig said the older brothers had their beds upstairs while the girls were down in the north east bedroom.  They remembered Forrest having the bedroom over the stairs. It was our first clue as to where anything from Dad might be  located.

Bear in mind, if you haven't seen the upstairs,  it is an unfinished area.  While the owners after the Kenningtons kept a very nice house downstairs, the attic area seems to have been left alone for all those years except for a little storage.

The room over the stairs is rather odd shaped with the eve of the roof taking away a good chunk of room on the right of the window.  In addition,  a chimney stack is about 5 feet away from the window coming up from the parlor and what was the master bedroom.   The walls are done in rough cut lumber.  (Perhaps surroundings like that inspired him to be a carpenter)

Because Saturday was our last trip to the house, we focused on his room which we had skipped on the other trips. We tried to think how Dad (Forrest) would have set his room up.    We remembered his shops and how methodical he was wherever we lived.  Anything he did would be logical and the most direct.  We assumed he would have centered activity around the window - maybe a chair or stool or desk near the window for light and fresh breezes.  (I hate to think how cold it would be in the winter)

Chimney stack in what was Forrest's bedroom.  Window is now boarded up.

Looking south from the bedroom door.  Chimney stack is on the far left.

 When we examined the south side of the chimney stack facing  the window we were delighted!
This was one time a kid could be forgiven for writing on the walls! 

Believed to be K and F for Forrest.

Right below is a very plain "Kennington" with the hook typical of his signature.

THE LETTER

We thought it couldn't get better than that, then Carson again came through (he discovered the first letter).  He checked the floor boards under the window and there was a lovely letter from Forrest's Sunday School Class offering condolences at his father's passing in July of 1939.

 His father's death came when Forrest was 15 years old.  He keenly felt the weight of providing for his Mother and younger siblings.  One could imagine him sitting near that dormer window catching a July breeze while he read the letter after his father's passing.  He would try to make the family dairy pay, but it was a loosing battle.  He left school and headed out to work in Evanston,  then on to Arizona with the General Contractor, Schumaker-Evans and last to the Marine Corps.  He sent the balance of his pay back to his mother for the family over the next 5 years - through the end of WWII.

We were touched to imagine the 15 year old Forrest pondering that letter one final time before slipping it under his window where it would lay undisturbed for the next 73 years.  And we were so grateful for its discovery.

Somehow it seems fitting that a tender letter to our father be our family's final memento of the old  brick house.

Donna and Lynette reading the letter.

Transcript of the letter:
We wish at this time, Forrest, to offer our sincere sympathies to you.  In these hours of bereavement we hope you will not be discouraged, but that your will always look on the bright side of life and know that what is done now or anytime is done for the best by the hand of One who knows what is best for us.

We understand that a lot of the responsibilities that your father had will now fall on you, and we hope that you will be able to carry on just as your father would have done if he had not been called and we know you will.

We all know what a wonderful father you had!  We all know how blessed you are to have had such a person to guide and direct you.  And the things which come up in your life to puzzle you, although    you won't have his direct counsel,  think "If I do what my father would have done,  I will be right."

Forrest, He is not dead!  
I cannot say and will not say that he is dead.  
He's just away, 
With a cherry smile and a wave of the hand, 
He wandered into an unknown land, 
And left us dreaming, 
How very fair it needs must be, 
Since he lingers there.
 And you, Oh you, who fondly yearns,
 For the old time step and the glad return, 
Think of him faring on as dear in the love of 
There as the love of here. 
Think of him still as the same I say
He is not Dead, he is just away.

.........ly,

...Sunday School Class


Note:  Poem quoted is Away by James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)