Author: Olivier Ballou

To Bertha from the “Bishop’s Office of Fiesole” – December 15, 1931

My dear Bertha,

So long I waited for a moment free to talk with you… but I feared to reach xmass without answering to your dear and enriched letter. I am sure you did not forget the beautiful language of Dante and Petrarca then I continue in Italian.

[Translated from Italian]

I have never forgotten you; in fact I often look at the card which I keep enclosed in my vest pocket: Giulia Bertha Ballou; Behind that one specific column in the Cathedral I always see a tiny green hat and I wonder to myself if one day we will se each other again.

Miss Reid actually remembered this time to show me your letters but I could never explain to myself how she could forget about her long lost friend or of the “dear Florence” and the “dear Jule”. You remember Saint Antonino’s, well, so much has changed and so many people have died!

Our poor Lady Ida is all by herself now: Even our beloved sister Giuseppina has passed away and Ida has retreated to the four tiny rooms in the basement surrounded by that filthy little parlor and full of so many good memories where I spent many hours over the past 30 years. Lady Ida also wanted to make room upstairs for the hospital which has grown a lot. Ida’s health is fine but she is just tired now and her legs refuse to carry her. I feel that I never loved her more than a monk – She is poor, ill and alone. I would like to be near to her until the death and close her eyes.

My life goes on as usual between the Choir and School and the Bishop’s Office. I often escape to the market, which is my biggest treat oh, how many memories of that street! My health is keeping up: but I do feel the first aches of old age settling in however they do certainly (tell me) that I don’t look my age and that I would have appeared to stop aging at 35 if it wasn’t for the fact that all my hair has fallen out.

I am so anxious to hear some news from you: I did hear about your past woes and your wishes and hopes cut short but I look forward to hearing all the details about your new life in Spokane. Are you living with your mother, sister and the kids? How are things going with your husband? How is your religious life and your life as an artist? How is your health? How is your garden? Our garden at Saint Antonino’s is a mess and all but abandoned.

Miss Reid is still in Fiesole but she is no longer at Saint Antonino’s so I go out to visit her every so often but the situation between Italy and England has cast long shadows over our relationship. [Note: After Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, he was initially accommodated by Britain, which accepted the expansion of Italian sphere of influence over modern Ethiopia. However, future British governments showed more opposition.] Miss Reid is really English and I am not and never will be. Today I am with Ferdinando a fierce Anglophobe who after having eaten a ton of stuff fights over a small strip of land, it disgust me; thus every conversation with Miss Reid ends in a fight…bloodless though.

I received greetings today from Austria from Mrs. Berta who has returned to her house in Chaperon! Donna Ida and Commissioner Batelli have asked me to send you many, many, many of my most affectionate greetings to the unforgettable Bertha. I want to send you an entire bundle of hellos and best wishes to our dear sweet friend on the wings of my affection for you which has never dwindled but only grown in your absence. As for any future letters with your news that I should be expecting that means out of the two addresses I would choose the older one.

Happy, Happy Christmas and Happy New Year dear: Pray for me as I remember you always in my prayers Christmas wishes to your mother and sister.

Good bye, Good bye, Good bye, with love.