Dorothea Allison to Milborough Mackay, 9 March [1914]
Oyama
BC
March 9th Canada
Dearest Mib,
It is dreadful the way I have gone on waiting to write to you. I fell head over heels at first — Then waited for a snap shot of the wedding group taken by Frank Rimmer. It is misleading as it leads one to suppose I was married in Church — which I wasn’t as I was marrying a non Catholic. But the priest let us out thro the church from the Vestry so Frank took us on the doorstep. hope [sic] you will observe the white ruffle which you gave me. It was quite an air to my get up. And does not the fur coat look quite saucy. I had a new collar put on to it & used the old collar in patching up gone parts. Bob absolutely refused to let me see your letter til I actually was Mrs. Allison! He really is the greatest treasure. He has put on 13 lbs. in six weeks since married!
I very much appreciated your letters from Aden and Port Sail. As it is a very alarming time just before marriage! & certainly a very lonely time in a great big country with — on the whole — very uncongenial people around me. Miss Wentworth was a dear & the Venables kind so I was lucky to have some one to stay with.
I had a horrid cold — the sort of thing I would go and get. So only got up from bed in time to dress & drive in from the Coldstream to Vernon. When we got down here after lunch Bob’s sister who had a baby a few days after! was here with her two little children to receive me. She helped me (when I unpacked the sheets) make the bed & then departed. Everything was awful for a few days as the new rooms were not furnished but now we are getting quite comfortable & my “living room” as the Canadians call a sitting room looks sweet — your rugs [sic] a great success & so light and nice to take up and shake — a thing much appreciated. Of course work is pretty constant — there is the butter to make & the bread besides the ordinary daily cooking etc. & washing. But Bob is very good in lending a hand & after all there is nothing interesting in this country except the great uncleared land so one might as well be busy in ones house & I have lots to learn as you can imagine.
Give Mrs. Butterworth my love when you see her — I hope she is better than last year.
How have you been since you have been out again? I hope you will write very soon to me in this land of exile and tell me all news.
Did you like Mrs.?! Nilas friend on board — with a baby?
How is Charlie — & where are you going for the hot weather. I often think of Pamba house. It is one of the loveliest places in the world.
Very much love
Bob sends love.
Your loving sister
Dorothea Allison
Typescripts, 1913-1922 — Dorothea Scott-Coward Allison Letters
Manuscript [1914]: