Bishop’s next letter to her aunt was written on 29 October
1960. If it has a theme, perhaps “mixed up life” might best suit. She reported
to Grace that when she went to post her last letter (18 October), “I found one
from you there — and scribbled so on the back of mine.” That letter told Bishop
that Grace was once again on the move. Bishop mailed her own previous letter
“to G.V. and I hope you got it — you had probably just left.” It was still a
time when mail was routinely forwarded, so Bishop trusted that someone at the
farm in the village would do so.
Before Bishop could respond to the one she’d received on 18
October, she got another letter from her aunt: “your letter of 22nd — day
before yesterday — it came in four days this time — from Weymouth.” Grace was not travelling for
pleasure, but to see Eleanor Boomer Snow, Arthur and Mabel’s eldest daughter,
who was seriously ill, dying of cancer. It was this news that Grace conveyed in
the second letter.
“I am very sorry to hear about poor Ellie — how awful.” Clearly, Grace had
indicated how dire the situation was: “hopeless.” Sadly, the details are lost,
but they were such to prompt Bishop to respond, “she is so small and weak to
have kept going all this time with all that dreadful involvement.”
Bishop was also concerned about Grace: “I am afraid you are
having a pretty grim time of it.” She was glad to hear that Hazel (Ellie’s
sister) “can be with her” and earnestly asked her aunt to “let me know how
things turn out.”
In between receiving the second letter (“day before
yesterday,” that is 27 October) and writing her own on the 29th, they had
finally received all the packages the Naudins had brought, the gifts from Grace
— though they had not received them directly from the Naudins. Bishop explained
the continuing saga of her cousin’s elusiveness later in this letter, but the
convergence of Grace’s epistle with its sad news and the receipt of the gifts,
especially the maple syrup, triggered an intense response, which Bishop
recounted to Grace.
After reminding Grace to let her know “your next address,”
she paused “…” and then wrote: “I dreamed about Ellie off and on last night.”
The news and the maple syrup prompted Bishop to then declare: “Life is so mixed
up — good and bad, comic and tragic.”
She suspected that “the reason why I dreamed was
because I ate so many pancakes with MAPLE SYRUP on them rather late last
night.” Then another ellipsis and a gush: “It is divine.” For Bishop
this gift brought a rush of memory and nostalgia. For Lota, who also delighted
in this gift, it was, as Bishop quoted her, a “taste of those northern woods.”
The vivid memory Bishop chose to recount was from the winter
of 1917: “I remember the time I was little (about six), and in bed with
bronchitis, and Pa put the dishpan filled with snow on the bed and poured boiled maple syrup over it to make
taffy.” Another ellipsis. You can sense Bishop actively remembering and
savouring. She acknowledged the “awful lot of trouble” her aunt had to get the
syrup to them, but assured her that they thoroughly “enjoy[ed] these simple but
rare pleasures!”
It was not the first time Grace had begifted this northern
delicacy, but Bishop declared “this time we are going to keep it all for
ourselves, selfishly.” She reported that “last time we treated various
friends,” but their reluctance this time was because they felt their largesse
was not “properly appreciated.” This time, it was just for “Lota and I and our
friend Mary Morse (who’s with us until her new house is ready to move into).”
Bishop declared that this time they were “going to eat it
all” and reported that their first go came after “a very light dinner on
purpose — just onion soup, first, followed by a huge batch of pancakes and
syrup.” Not surprisingly, after such a long wait and anticipation, Bishop
overdid it and ended up with “nightmares” about Ellie.
After this detailed introduction, Bishop turned from cousin
Ellie and maple syrup back to cousin Elizabeth. That saga will be updated in
the next post.
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