From: Colonsay, Saskatchewan, Canada
5 March 1931
Dear Staats Anzeiger!
Mankind is like a flower which stands fresh and in full bloom in the morning and in the evening, even before the sunsets, it is withered and dried up. That’s how we have seen it again in Joseph Föth’s report from Brazil. Joseph Nagel died in the prime of his life. We can hardly believe that our young friend has left us. We knew him very well in Emmental, Bessarabia. I was very saddened when I read those lines. A heavy blow struck Mrs. Zälestina Nagel, but in the end we all have to walk that road – old or young, rich or poor.
I do not have any newsworthy items to report, with the exception that the farmers are taking a dim view toward the future, because the price for wheat is at a low and a year of drought looms again. Cars are used less, thanks to the scarce times, In order to drive you need gasoline, and that costs money which is not always on hand.
Our teachers had to submit to the hard times and take a reduction in pay. Our children in school get to eat soup every noon, which is a laudable service.
On the sick list is the 89-year-old Anton Brandel. He suffers with cancer. They took him to the hospital again, but it seems that there is no hope for a recovery. You have to feel sorry for the old man, nearly deaf and almost blind, in addition to suffering from cancer. Maybe God will soon deliver him from his disease.
Dora Heissler, daughter of Albert Heissler, married Johannes Prediger in January. We wish the newlyweds luck in their joint lives journey.
Friend Elias, for whom we ordered the newspaper, should not only read the newspaper eagerly, but he also should write off and on; with that the friends in the old country would be very happy. The best hello to him.
A nice hello to friend Joseph Paul in our old home village, Emmental, Bessarabia. We are awaiting a long report from him about who has died and who was married. These are events that we want to find out about first.
We also would like very much to find out how the children of the deceased Sophia Moldenhauer are doing.
We also greet the correspondent Isidor Leinz in Krasna, Bessarabia and would like to know if Dorothea Moldenhauer received our letter. We just cannot get an answer from her.
We convey our sincere condolences to the relatives of the veteran correspondent of the Staats Anzeiger, Johannes Sauter, in Kassel, Soviet Russia. We always enjoyed reading his reports.
The best hello to Sebastian Moser in Balmas, Bessarabia. We ask him to write more often. We enjoy reading his reports.
We also would like to know how the widow Rosina nee Merz, is doing.
Anna Moldenhauer