kilkelly ireland 18 and 60 my dear and loving son john your good friend the schoolmaster pat mcnamara s so good as to write these words down your brothers have all gone to find work in england the house is so empty and sad the crop of potatoes is sorely infected a third to a half of them bad and your sister brigid and patrick o donnell are going to be married in june your mother says not to work on the railroad and be sure to come on home soon kilkelly ireland 18 and 70 dear and loving son john hello to your mrs and to your 4 children may they grow healthy and strong michael has got in a wee bit of trouble i guess that he never will learn because of the dampness there s no turf to speak of and now we have nothing to burn and brigid is happy you named a child for her and now she s got six of her own you say you found work but you don t say what kind or when you will be coming home kilkelly ireland 18 and 80 dear michael and john my sons i m sorry to give you the very sad news that your dear old mother has gone we buried her down at the church in kilkelly your brothers and brigid were there you don t have to worry she died very quickly remember her in your prayers and it s so good to hear that michael s returning with money he s sure to buy land for the crop has been poor and the people are selling at any price that they can kilkelly ireland 18 and 90 my dear and loving son john i guess that i must be close on to eighty it s thirty years since you re gone because of all of the money you send me i m still living out on my own michael has built himself a fine house and brigid s daughters have grown thank you for sending your family picture they re lovely young women and men you say that you might even come for a visit what joy to see you again kilkelly ireland 18 and 92 my dear brother john i m sorry that i didn t write sooner to tell you that father passed on he was living with brigid she says he was cheerful and healthy right down to the end ah you should have seen him play with the grandchildren of pat mcnamara your friend and we buried him alongside of mother down at the kilkelly churchyard he was a strong and a feisty old man considering his life was so hard and it s funny the way he kept talking about you he called for you in the end oh why don t you think about coming to visit we d all love to see you again