Voices from the past

Since I was born there and because we talked often about the book we'd write one day, Mom gave me a stack of letters, written primarily by her to her parents while she and Dad (and their first five children) were in France. There are also a few from Marnie to Bet and to Mimi and, I believe, even to Namama (written when Marnie, who was visiting them in France, grieving for her recently deceased husband, General William Waters) An amusing and insightful, might I add, comment about Jim, in a letter from Marnie to Mimi. She writes, "Jim is the clown of the family. He has lost four front teeth since I've been here - and I think he fools with his teeth to loosen them so he can collect!" She also noted that "Jane is in the kitchen baking four (underlined in letter) cakes. She decided a rainy day was a good time for baking." Naturally, my favorite part is "Madeleine is a darling and has such a sweet disposition. I think she will look like Jane when she gets some hair." Disappointingly, that didn't happen. Oh yeah, and there was something in there about "The boys are so cute and very affectionate." No mention of good behavior but, then again, why would there be? In one of the letters from Mom to her mother, Mimi, she writes of returning from Monte Carlo and having to pull over on the narrow, winding road (the one on which Princess Grace was killed although that was yet to happen) to let a car pass and the driver turned to look at them and it was Prince Ranier.