Happy weekend from the cheating husband

July 20, 2007

My grandmother kept letters documenting the fallout from my grandfather’s affair (with the woman who became his next wife). In this missive (below), he urges my grandmother to leave her parents’ place and come back to him. The language becomes increasingly unhinged and self-pitying; I suspect he was getting progressively shitfaced as he wrote. Some notable passages (typos reproduced from the original; emphasis added):

• Tell [my mother] Daddy loves her and will take her to the zoo if she comes home at once & if not she may never see me again. You took all her pictures & there are no sheets for the bed. The one on the bed now stinks.

• I also want to find the S.B. that came down here or any other Person that keeps noseing into our Business. I may get gas & come down There. Then I am going to Bring [my mother] Back with me & slap the shit out of 2 or 3 C— then you can kiss asses until you are full.

• Give [my mother] my love and you can have it to if you want me instead of shit.