Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Dear Sharon and Family -- I was so shocked and saddened to read today that my old friend Roy has died. I had a note on my computer to phone you and Roy this evening to offer my condolences regarding Belmer's death on the 16th. (I hadn't realized until I found Belmer's on-line obituary that both Stanley and Rachel had died within the past year. It was a great shock to me to realize that Roy was now the last of the six. ). As you know so well, my family was very close to the Hitchcocks, and of course that tie was deepened when I began staying with Betty after the death of my sister, Jean. At Betty and Pete's, I would so often see you and Roy and get to enjoy your company.
My first specific memory of Roy was one time when we dropped by the farm and learned, to our surprise, that Roy, then a tiny baby, had very recently arrived. The second specific memory of him was at the Hitchcock farm when, a few years later on one of our frequent family visits, the two of us sat under a maple tree out front and I taught him to tie his shoes. He'd been having trouble catching on how to do it.
How my family always enjoyed our frequent visits to Willard and Edith's (and, of course, Ella's) farm. (My dad, Charles Loucks, stayed with the Hitchcocks and worked as a hired man after he and my beloved grandmother, Virginia Loucks Bennett, were made homeless when their house and barn burned to the ground in Sept. 1932. (Betty used to tell me that her parents would comment about how noisy my 21-year-old Dad had been, back then.) I'll call you soon to express directly my deepest sympathy on this great loss.
I'll also plan to give Dennis a call.
Your saddened friend,
Rupert
