Mrs. Albert H.
LeBlond to Rev. Jesse Halsey
Cincinnati
Cincinnati
Dear Sir:
Anyone busy with so many different kinds of good work as you
are cannot long dwell on any one particular problem, it would see to me; and so
I am hoping my troubles have long since been dismissed from your mind. For some
time, however, I have felt it was discourteous, to say the least, not to
acknowledge my debt of gratitude to you for your kindness and helpfulness when,
in desperation, I came to you for advice early last spring. It is still a
source of humiliation to me that I felt impelled to lay bare before another the
private difficulties of our family. Winnie has improved very much, and probably
has done so more through your influence than I may ever know. Therefore, I feel
that my own humiliation is a small price I should gladly pay for what I believe
is a permanent more wholesome outlook on life on her part.
Winnie got out of work the last of April and although she
immediately applied through various agencies, she received no encouragement
about a new position until business conditions improve. Don (our son) was most anxious for her to come to Greeley for the summer school term and, as
she was persuaded to go, she is there with him now. Don had to be in Greeley
through the summer to retain his job as janitor of the dorm, and is himself
going on with class work there instead of taking an extension course here at
U.C. as he at first considered doing. We are hoping the invigorating air and
change of environment will further help Winnie in every way and that distance
may enable her to learn her true feelings toward her friend.
Mr. LeBlond’s mother has been with us now, for almost a
month. She has needed a daughter to look after her more than I
realized—especially in the way of her clothing—and I hope I shall be able to do
for her what she needs. Her other son, who drove here from Seattle, assured us
that she is well able to shoulder her share of running expenses, so we are glad
we risked moving here where we can make her comfortable, rather than renting
what we alone could afford and where she would not have had a porch or large
comfortable room.
Mr. LeBlond is again the devoted husband of former years,
and, Don is applying himself to preparation for his life work; hence, while life
is still far from easy in many respects, the problems that were proving almost
too hard to stand-up under seem to be in the process of being solved.
My own sphere of usefulness in this world of need is very
limited. Although I cannot have a part in the larger work, it gives me renewed
faith in mankind to know there are such people as you, [General Secretary of
the YMCA in Cincinnati] Mr. Judson McKim, Rev. Almy [L.W. Almy, minister of
West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church] and the Aschams [J.B. Ascham, supt.
Cincinnati Children’s Home] in our City, and Mr. Harry Emerson Fosdick and
others elsewhere, doing what is possible to bring about “The Kingdom of
Heaven,” of which Jesus spoke so many times and for which he, too, worked.
I was so sorry about your accident of some weeks past, and I
hope you are entirely recovered. Thanking you again for your helpfulness to me,
a stranger, I am
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Abbie LeBlond
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