January 16, 1953

My dear uncle! I am afraid that this letter will not reach you on time on Tuesday. It was also supposed to be written a day earlier, but Wednesday Ralphy fell ill and has had terrible diarrhea for two days. Luckily I can report that today he is fine except that he is still on a diet but he is quite jolly again. (I shouldn't have said that: now he's screaming because I won't let him play with the telephone!)

So please don't blame us if we're late with our congratulations. From the bottom of our hearts we wish you all the very best, very good health and a comfortable life in every respect. Aunt writes to me that you are still working so hard, you really should make it a little easier for yourself! A special wish of mine is, of course, that you get to know my family. It's really a shame that you have such a cute 16 month old great nephew and don't even know him. What about the trip to America you were considering? Wasn't that scheduled for 1953? God I would be happy if you came here!

There is nothing else to report from us. We've met two nice couples now, and if the favor is mutual, we should at least have a little more traffic here in the future. Overall, we're still not too keen on Denver. The continental climate with enormous temperature fluctuations doesn't really suit us, the population is if possible even more commercial than the average American, and from a cultural point of view there's nothing going on here except for a few concerts. But I'm very happy with my house and as long as I have that and my family I don't really care where I am.

Again, my very best wishes and warm regards and kisses, your Jani

Dear Uncle! Jani really didn't leave me much space. I wish you the very best on your birthday and above all I hope that the time is approaching when you both come to America.

I am writing a separate letter again. Just congratulations for today

Your Henry.

Jan 16, 1955.

My dear Uncle Tramer

Before you know it another year has passed, time really flies. Every year we intend to correspond with you more regularly, but somehow it's over before we've actually managed to fulfill this wish. But you know that we think of you a lot and sincerely wish to see you again soon - or get to know you - so that we can finally establish personal contact again. – On your birthday we wish you continued success and satisfaction in your professional and personal life, good health and many, many more years of old vigour.

You and especially Aunt will have been missing a letter from me for some time (I hope you received our holiday wishes with the children's picture), especially as Aunt sent the children some particularly adorable things for Christmas. The reason is pleasant or not pleasant - depending on how you want to look at it, namely I'm pregnant again. I didn't want to write you about it until I'd notified Mutti, and I didn't want to upset her until I was sure. But now the facts have been established without a doubt and I wrote it to Mutti. It was completely unintentional on our part, two children would have been enough for us anyway, but of course it suits us particularly badly at this time when we want to be sent to Europe (the baby is due on August 1st). It's the same with mom, I want her to be here this time, but her visit visa cancels her application for an immigrant visa. If we go to Europe it wouldn't matter as we would be staying in Europe for three years but if something comes up Mutti has to go back alone and is much worse off than before. So you see the dilemma. I'm very depressed about the whole situation.

Otherwise everything is more or less the same with us. We spent the holidays "quietly", i.e. quiet in the social sense, literally it is of course rarely quiet in our house. Ralphy is quite a big boy now with thoughts and expressions of his own and Shirley is almost two legged now, it looks like she will suddenly be able to walk properly one day. The relationship between the two is still very positive. So again, heartiest congratulations for uncle and aunt and many thanks for the beautiful blouse and the very original smock.

All the best to you both and warm regards

Kisses from your Jani

Dear Uncle!

I send you my warmest congratulations on your birthday and I hope that you may have many, many more years of good health and fresh work. I thank you and Aunt Franka very much for your birthday congratulations and I only hope that your wishes will come true. I haven't published anything yet. I do not belong to the very large group of "scientists" nowadays who feel compelled to write articles before they have acquired the elementary knowledge. I'm still learning the basics of psychiatry, but I hope one day I might be able to make a modest contribution. Of course you will be among the first to receive a copy. – Jani has already given you the new news. Now we will really have a big family and we can only hope that the children will live up to the tradition of both families,

Once again all the best and warmest regards

Your Henry.

January 18, 1959

Dear Uncle,

I congratulate you all on your birthday and wish you all the best for the new year. Although you always claim that you are old, I see you rivaling the young in creativity and giving them a tough intellectual battle. May you be granted many more years of this spiritual freshness and energy!

I don't have to apologize for not replying to your inquiry about the meeting. It's no longer necessary, however. But I was in an administrative crisis again, as they wanted to take one of my doctors away from me. That kind of thing always causes a lot of trouble, because you have to have pointless discussions for hours with people who know little about psychiatric work and don't want to see that in a psychiatric ward you need more staff for fewer patients. In the military in particular, you can never plan properly. However, similar situations also exist in civil life. I also have a neuropathological case to discuss the week after next. Bellak's book is just a new edition of the previously published work. It seems, however, to have been greatly enlarged, and I would be very glad to see it if you could lend it to me.

We are very pleased that you have found a pretty little house. Should it only be used for holidays or do you want to move completely? I hope we'll see it before we leave. There is nothing new to report from us. We have had a lot of snow for the last ten days, which is great fun for the children. You have a small toboggan run across from our house.

Once again all the best and warmest greetings to you and your aunt

Henry

...

my dear uncle,

I join Henry's congratulations and wish you a lot of joy and good health in the new year. Aunt writes so enthusiastically about buying the house (it's perfect, isn't it?) that I really think you've found almost exactly what you were looking for and I hope you will spend many happy hours there. How is the connection there?

With warmest regards and kisses, also from the small children, to you and your aunt

Your Jani

Undated (but presumably for his birthday January 1960). Written in Mom's hand with Shirley and Eleanor signatures.

Dear Uncle

Have a good birthday. We have a Dicky[1] too. We love him so much. One time come and see Dicky.

Did you have fun at Christmas? I have friends here, especially Keith. Sometimes they come to our house. We like this house. It's 7... do you know the address? Do you like your Dicky too? Our Dicky bird sings a lot. Does your Dicky sing? What are you going to have on your birthday? I hope you like your house too. Do you have fun? Our bird eats salad. He's so crazy sometimes; he jumps on the swing in his cage.

Bubby was a devil and I was a clown and Shirley was a witch on Halloween.

I can't think of anything else.

Many kisses

Nono

...

Dear Uncle

Have a happy birthday. I hope you get nice things for your birthday.

We play in school. (Why don't you just write Connecticut Park school, uncle does not know Bubby and I go to Connecticut Park School). We play with paint, huge blocks (some people call them "huge" blocks, some people call them "big" blocks), chalk pictures.

On Friday afternoon I go to Ballerina school. I love to go there.

We learn stuff in Sunday school. We look at books and play with puzzles. I like Kindergarten better than Sunday school.

We got stairs in our house. We got a basement too. Bubby got his own room and Nono and me got a room by ourselves. Dear uncle, we got two rooms down in the basement. We got next-door neighbors.

Kisses uncle from

Shirley