.MTM5MQ.MTE5NTQ0

3/6/57 Dear Bertha - We have been through a very tough period - hope we are through, but there seems to be a jinx pursuing us. As soon as we get one problem solved - or even before - another one drops from the sky. We are even begin ning to wonder if there is something the matter w/ us. Our friends don't seem to be always tangled up in other people's troubles the way we have been since we got our real estate difficulties under control. Of course Bertie's sister's illness was something likely to happen - unfortunately - in a sixth [crossed out: quarter] of the families in this country, I don't know whether we had time to write you that she got steadily worse at home, so we took her to the Baptist Hospital in Jax. There her ailment was at once diagnosed as cancer of the spine & she was operated on the very next day, but the surgeon could only remove part of a spinal