Cooper, Ethel – July 1918
7.7.18
My dear Emmie,
Yesterday I had what we still call our Allies’ Tea here, though the allied members, the Russian, French and American ones, have all gone, and the four English ones are all that are left.
We have the so-called ‘Spanish sickness’ here in full swing. It is a sort of influenza, but unusually contagious. However it seems more or less mild, in three or four days people are generally up again, and there have been very few deaths from it.
14.7.18
My dear Emmie,
We wait every hour for the long-talked of offensive. Dr. Knopf tells me that there is so much Spanish influenza in the army that the Germans have had to delay it, and that is probably the case with us too – anyhow, we can better afford the delay, for time is on our side.
The usual summer talk of peace in the winter is going about – one does not dare to listen to it, or to hope in it.
21.7.18
My dear Emmie,
All this week I have been getting letters – all written on various dates in April. I was so very glad to get yours with the little photograph of Howard taken at Trinity. It is so clear and good, and is the only one I have here of him, for I packed away the other little one taken on Lemnos in 1915.
28.7.18
My dear Emmie,
Buying tooth-powder today in a chemist’s shop, I saw a weighing machine, and found that I have put on 4 lb in weight – it must be from the everlasting thick soups that I am eating of late. I must say it is not an interesting diet, but it seems to agree with me. And we ought to have potatoes again next month, though not many, for we hear on [all] sides that the harvest is not good.
