Lotta Hitschmanova was a letter writer extraordinaire. So many times in my travels across the country, individuals have shared with me their joy at having received a personal, hand written note from Lotta, and some have even safe guarded these notes as keepsakes in treasured locations in their homes.
Here is a remarkable, touching letter that Lotta wrote to a friend in Moose Jaw in 1983:
Dear, very dear Mrs _____:
I do not know what I should thank you for first – your friendship for me; your thoughtfulness which began many, many years ago and continues year after year, to my great delight – or whether I should thank you foremost for that charming pair of slippers which you chose as a special surprise for Christmas Day…
You and I have known each other for very, very many years – you were among the very first to welcome me to Canada within that lovable group of women, all so thoughtful and anxious to help the people whose messenger I suddenly had become, after my 52 days’ ordeal on the water, to come from Europe to Canada…
I often wonder whether those very, very first new friends of whom you were one, truly understood then and even today how profoundly moved I was with the reception which you gave me and the kindness to welcome me as a new, needy friend who had left behind in Europe all that I had once possessed and most of all, my family, irreplaceable of course….
Now, after so many years, I am a real Canadian, but when Christmas comes and letters such as yours, then I cannot thank sufficiently for the privilege to now have friends from one coast of Canada to the other and all that goes with friendship – love and understanding and joy.
There would be many other things to say, but time is very short these days at 56 Sparks Street and all I can do now is to say my newest “Thank You” and to hope that we shall soon meet again!
Do be well – please take care of yourself and thank you for the many gifts that were tucked in your parcel!
Affectionately yours,
Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova, C.C.
Founding Director, USC Canada