The Writer ~ Emily Eden was born 3 March 1797 and passed away 5 August 1869. She was a poet and novelist who gave witty accounts of English life in the early 19th Century. Eden wrote a celebrated account of her travels in India. She was also an accomplished amateur artist.
Our Reader ~ Ruth Carraway is a British actor, playwright, and community arts advocate whose career spans UK television and New Zealand-based restorative theatre. Her focus on social impact, saw her working as a youth mentor and in employment initiatives in the Clutha District. Ruth also founded the Happy You...!! Theatre Company in Dunedin, a bold initiative using forum theatre to empower prisoners and ex-offenders. A proud Milton local for 13 years, Ruth is now back in the UK, sharing her talent and energy with those around her there.
Miss Eden to her Sister, Mrs. Drummond.
Saturday [September 1835].
My very dear Mary, Your note was a sad blow to me; but perhaps it is best that we should so have parted, and I am very thankful that we should have had this week together. I am thankful for many things—that we love each other so entirely; that you have a husband who has been so invariably kind to all of us, and whom I can love in return; and then, that your girls seem to me like real friends, and almost like my own children. All these are great goods and absence cannot touch them. God bless you, my darling Sister. Your ever affectionate,
E. EDEN.