June 16, 1973 The Governing Board, The Short Sundays, The Only Friend, The Tomato Plants and The Vacation Time

Dear Mother,

"Things are still very quiet around here with the students having a few days before summer school begins on Monday. B's work is just as heavy as usual but he doesn't have the President around all the time. He is still in town but doesn't come to campus--calls sometimes. Nothing can be done officially until he is completely out of the picture. The governing board is to meet Wednesday to act on his resignation and then it will be over. They should have called a special meeting but the chairman didn't do it. Anyway, they have all been working hard with planning so they can start repairing the damage as soon as possible. They think it may take 2 years to get the university back in shape. B will have extra work the next two weeks because the other Dean is off campus. He's doing his yearly stint in the National Guard and had put it off until he had to go.

Bob & Pat came yesterday afternoon and will be here several days before he starts his internship the 23rd. Her school was out yesterday morning but she plans to go to summer school in Chicago. Bob will have to work 7 days a week so won't be home much. Some Sundays will be short but he still has to check his patients every Sunday. He's looking forward to it. While he's home he wants to write another paper about his research. He's had 3 accepted by publishers of medical magazines. We saw one of them but it is all Greek to me, of course.

Bob got his call from the National Institutes of Health & will go to Bethesda, Maryland to do research in infectious diseases in July, 1975. That will be for 2 or 3 years--two for certain & the third year is by choice, I think.

Have you been painting or washing woodwork to make your chest ache? Maybe some of those things should be left undone. I know that's hard to do but sometimes we have to do things we don't like to do.

I can't help but feel sorry for Opal Neberry. She was always so good to B's mom and really helped her in lots of things. She hasn't mentioned this at all and I know she feels terrible about it. She is probably the only friend Opal had and that girl will probably be found guilty whether she is or not.

I'm glad you like the lavender dress. That is the perfect color for you. At least, I thought that other lavender dress looked awfully pretty on you & that's when I decided I was going to make you a lavender dress. Don't you like the buttons down the front? I just love a dress like that. It is so easy to put on.

My tomato plants are practically gone. Something has been eating them but the squash is really growing. I think every seed came up.

We hope to have some vacation time in July and if things go as planned we think we'll go to Canada. We've never been to Quebec and that should be a nice trip. The main thing is for B to get away and rest. He's terribly tired. We haven't made any definite plans & may not be able to until the last minute but we're hoping we can go. We won't have a new President right away but an acting one so we don't really know what's ahead of us except lots of work.

I hope you are feeling better. Don't try to do so much work and rest more. The work is really not important."

                        Love,

                            Bonnie