copenhagen february nine eighteen hundred and seventyone[1]

                                                dearest brother

my sweet kathrine and i would like to thank you and dear mother for your dear letters   yes it was an immense grief to us that dear father-in-law[2] passed away    and although having witnessed him becoming increasingly weak the last few months yet we couldn’t bring ourselves to believe that the end was so near    already when dear brother-in-law peter from thisted[3] was here in order to bury his beloved wife and his new-born son[4] he told us he feared  that his father’s illness would be his demiseduring the entire christmas father-in-law was bedridden   after christmas his condition deteriorated but during his last days in life he was here and without pains    the graveside ceremony was over there[5]   i had set my mind to travel over there but then my own catherine fell ill and i had to stay and take care of her    she had to stay in bed for ten days but thanks to god she is now fully recovered   wee little sarah had to be weaned and fortunately it went very well    she seems to thrive much better on food and a blend of cow’s milk and water than on breast milk   all our toddlers have been in good health all the time thank god   kathrine’s illness was a nervous disorder and in connection with that a disorder of the blood probably as a consequence of the many childbirths during a short period of time   and also caused by all the grief we have had[6]

dear father-in-law’s body was brought here and luckily the hearse with his body was able to cross the water down by koster[7] all the farmers of the parish [8] accompanied all the way from kieldby[9] to koster   this is where the funeral ceremony took place quietly from the chapel of the churchyard of assistens   i gave a short speech in the chapel   and pronounced the blessing over his mortal remains when they had been lowered into the grave   all the sons were present at the graveside ceremony in kieldby   dean hiort from elmelunde gave the funeral oration in the church and spoke most beautifully

we are longing to hear how our dear sweet mother is doing in this hard winter period   i have the fondest greetings to mother from my sweet kathrine and the message that she is going to write to her soon   my writing ball is soon to be presented in public once again in a new or rather several new versions and in addition much improved   a youngster   son of a widow   has now for three months been practising in the use of the writing ball i pay him .......[10]   per second[11] the more he earns   he has now earned a total of fortytwo daler[12] and has achieved a surprising skill   everything that i dictate to him at a normal rate of speaking he types with the greatest ease   he is  now far more skilled than i am   at the school i am starting to enjoy very much teaching speech skills and by now almost the entire instruction in my class is done in verbal[13] danish and the children speak quite clearly and already do fairly good lip-reading   i myself have been enjoying very good health throughout   best regards to our dear sweet mother and to you dear brother john and to you dear brother   please write to me soon

                                                your deeply devoted brother

                                                      R. Malling Hansen                                                                                                 (signed)