Page 273 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 273
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
to her ever afterwards as “my marvellous mother-in-law”. As Esther could not stay there indefinitely
the decision was made to bring the whole family down to Hanzhong.
Christmas 1942 was fairly quiet with just ourselves and no outside visitors, not because we had not
invited anybody to share it with us but most of us felt we could not spend money unnecessarily on
travelling when our money was so limited by the exchange rate. Alan went down with measles soon
after and I was thankful that Dorothy escaped, though Frankie got it later. Alan had a high fever and
very sore eyes while the rash lasted, but he made a quick recovery afterwards. He was soon up and
playing in the room where I kept a fire going day and night because the weather was so cold. Frank
got very thin and his face swelled so much that he looked like a different child. He had no appetite at
all, so I gave him extra milk and cod liver oil and gradually he began to look more like himself, but he
took longer to recover than Alan did. Hanzhong seemed to have less sunshine than Xixiang and in
one letter I commented
“I get awfully tired of the long succession of dull days, sometimes for
weeks at a time and I find myself longing for the sunshine. The first
week the children were out of bed and well enough to play outside,
the sun actually shone on four successive days, so I kept them out in
it to make the most of it while it lasted.”
That winter of 1942/43 was a particularly long and cold one.
THE CHILDREN
I wrote about Dorothy at that time,
“She is such a darling, a contented happy little girl with a smile for
everybody. It will be a marvel if she is not spoiled as we all make
such a fuss of her. She tries to sit up now and to talk to us when we
talk to her. She lies in bed for ever so long just talking to herself. It
will be nice when these dark cold winter days are over. I get tired of
drying baby clothes by the fire and trying to keep the children warm.”
A month later I was writing, “Dorothy gets sweeter every day. She
will be five months old this week and will soon be sitting up alone.
She tries hard to lift herself up now and manages to get her head and
shoulders well off the pillow. She is such a happy little baby and very
rarely cries, but lies in her cot chuckling and talking to herself and
blowing bubbles with great gusto.
Frankie is a funny little three year old now and his quaint remarks
keep us all amused”. A little later I wrote, “Frankie is standing in front
of the photo of Beth, Dora and Mary and wants to know which is
which. The other morning I called him in about 11 o’clock to have a
nap before lunch. He was most indignant and said ‘Alan isn’t going to
bed.’ Trying to avoid an argument I just murmured, ‘Alan is an old
dumbbell.’ He immediately thought a dumbbell must be somebody
who didn’t need morning naps and said, ‘Me sink me a dumbbell,
Mummy’ (sink = think). When he wants to be cuddled, he climbs on
to my knee and says, ‘Me sink me a little boy, Mummy’
273
Amy Moore
to her ever afterwards as “my marvellous mother-in-law”. As Esther could not stay there indefinitely
the decision was made to bring the whole family down to Hanzhong.
Christmas 1942 was fairly quiet with just ourselves and no outside visitors, not because we had not
invited anybody to share it with us but most of us felt we could not spend money unnecessarily on
travelling when our money was so limited by the exchange rate. Alan went down with measles soon
after and I was thankful that Dorothy escaped, though Frankie got it later. Alan had a high fever and
very sore eyes while the rash lasted, but he made a quick recovery afterwards. He was soon up and
playing in the room where I kept a fire going day and night because the weather was so cold. Frank
got very thin and his face swelled so much that he looked like a different child. He had no appetite at
all, so I gave him extra milk and cod liver oil and gradually he began to look more like himself, but he
took longer to recover than Alan did. Hanzhong seemed to have less sunshine than Xixiang and in
one letter I commented
“I get awfully tired of the long succession of dull days, sometimes for
weeks at a time and I find myself longing for the sunshine. The first
week the children were out of bed and well enough to play outside,
the sun actually shone on four successive days, so I kept them out in
it to make the most of it while it lasted.”
That winter of 1942/43 was a particularly long and cold one.
THE CHILDREN
I wrote about Dorothy at that time,
“She is such a darling, a contented happy little girl with a smile for
everybody. It will be a marvel if she is not spoiled as we all make
such a fuss of her. She tries to sit up now and to talk to us when we
talk to her. She lies in bed for ever so long just talking to herself. It
will be nice when these dark cold winter days are over. I get tired of
drying baby clothes by the fire and trying to keep the children warm.”
A month later I was writing, “Dorothy gets sweeter every day. She
will be five months old this week and will soon be sitting up alone.
She tries hard to lift herself up now and manages to get her head and
shoulders well off the pillow. She is such a happy little baby and very
rarely cries, but lies in her cot chuckling and talking to herself and
blowing bubbles with great gusto.
Frankie is a funny little three year old now and his quaint remarks
keep us all amused”. A little later I wrote, “Frankie is standing in front
of the photo of Beth, Dora and Mary and wants to know which is
which. The other morning I called him in about 11 o’clock to have a
nap before lunch. He was most indignant and said ‘Alan isn’t going to
bed.’ Trying to avoid an argument I just murmured, ‘Alan is an old
dumbbell.’ He immediately thought a dumbbell must be somebody
who didn’t need morning naps and said, ‘Me sink me a dumbbell,
Mummy’ (sink = think). When he wants to be cuddled, he climbs on
to my knee and says, ‘Me sink me a little boy, Mummy’
273
