( Editor's Note:I've been asked if I could put a copy of these up on the site. Enjoy --those of you who may not have read it before)

Dear Son,

Just a few lines to let you know I'm still alive. I'm writing this letter slowly because I know you can't read fast.

You won't know the house when you get home - we have moved.

About your father - he has a lovely new job. He has 500 men under him - he cuts grass at the cemetery.

There was a washing machine at the new house when we moved in but it hasn't been working too good. Last week I put in 14 shirts, pulled the chain, and haven't seen the shirts since.

Your sister Mary had a baby this morning but I haven't found out whether it's a boy or a girl, so I don't know if you are an aunt or an uncle.

Your uncle Patrick drowned last week in a vat of whisky in the Dublin Brewery. Some of his workmates tried to save him but he fought them off bravely. They cremated him and it took three days to put out the fire.

I went to the doctor on Thursday and your father went with me. The doctor put a small tube in my mouth and told me not to talk for ten minutes. Your father offered to buy it from him.

It only rained twice this week, first for three days and then for four days. Monday was so windy one of the chickens laid the same egg four times.

We had a letter from the undertaker. He said if the last payment on your Grandmother's plot wasn't paid in seven days, up she comes.

Your loving Mother

PS: I was going to send you five pounds but I had already sealed the envelope

LONG, LONG BEFORE YOUR TIME

You ask me why I look so sad on this bright summer day
Or why the tears are in my eyes and I seem so far away
Well sit yourself beside me here and put your hand in mine
And I ll tell of someone I loved long, long before your time

I m sitting here and thinking of those days so long ago
When I was just a child like you and a girl I used to know
Through fields of green we laughed and played and sang our merry rhymes
Oh summer days were warmer then, long, long before your time

Through Childhood years our love did bloom till our hearts were just as one
And we promised each eternal love in the church before the town
We settled in this little house, I was proud to call her mine
Oh we were young and happy then, long, long before your time

One lovely year was all we had until the sickness came
And stole the roses from her cheeks. My tears they fell like rain .
For nine long months she carried you but in the end she died .
She chose to go so you might live, long, long before your time.
So you ask me why I look so sad on this bright summer’s day ?
Or why the tears are in my eyes and I seem so far away?
It s just you seem a lot like her, when your eyes look into mine
And you smile so much like she did then, long, long before your time