August 1, 1930 letter
35 Franklin Avenue, Saranac Lake Friday Aug 1st / 1930
Dear Ceilie,
Received your letter yesterday and was glad to hear from you. You asked what kind of a place this is. Well, they call them Nursing Homes. They have rooms here as high as $ 55.00 per week. Of course I don’t pay anything like that, I couldn’t.
They have registered Nurses here who served their time in hospitals in NY and elsewhere. The food up here is excellent. The climate is very good. At night you have to have a blanket on you. I haven’t seen much of the grounds around the house, because I am in bed all the time. I am not worrying about getting better however because I have one of the best doctors in the world, I guess. His name is Dr. Hayes [almost certainly Dr. John N. Hayes] and he is pretty young. But he does know T.B. He comes from Ohio and has practiced up here for about ten years.
I cannot get into a regular Sanatorium just yet. You see you must wait your turn. Anybody coming up here must go into these Nursing Homes first until there is a vacancy in one of the Sans. And then you must be in pretty good shape or else they won’t take you.
When I was home I had a terrible attack of pleurisy. I couldn’t breathe or anything, I guess they told you. Well when Dr. Hayes heard that he decided that there must be fluid on one of my lungs. Well anyway he drained off about a pint of green stuff. He is going to take off the remaining soon. Then I will improve rapidly. I guess that’s all for now. Take good care of the children.
Jack
P.S. The R.R. fare up here is about $ 25.00 Round trip. Pretty expensive. But if you can get up here some time will be glad to see you.
