Sydney
(Wednesday) 5 March 1913
My dearest & sweetest Dolly
This will be a rather sad letter but you will see why later.
Last Tuesday Clifford was very sick in the street & I begged him to go & see Mac. He refused & made me promise not to tell his wife. He went home early & I followed on later. At night he was alright & one or two friends came in.
Wednesday morning we came down to town together & after a few minutes at the office we went along to meet Mrs Todd & Alder at the station. We went up to Wentworth falls where I spent Xmas & the New Year.
We arrived about 3.30 & while Mrs T was making tea the spirit lamp exploded. There was a nice flare up but we managed to extinguish the flames & had tea. At night Clifford was rather tired so he went to bed early & asked me to play for him, which I did from eight till ten o’clock. Thursday morning Cliff got up & went out shooting before breakfast. He seemed quite perky & more like his old self. After breakfast Alder & I went out shooting with great success. I never had a miss & we killed 10 magpies.
It got terribly hot & so we rested. After lunch Alder & I walked down to the village & bought some views & PCs (I sent you a book of views & hope you will receive it safely). When we got back Cliff wanted to have a walk & so we all walked down to the village together.
We had quite a lot of fun & he was in the best of spirits.
After dinner Mrs Todd sang for two hours & then I went to Cliff’s bedroom to talk to him. When his supper was brought in we all three talked & laughed. Then he wanted to be sick & I stayed with him. Before he sat up in bed hardly, a huge torrent of blood spurted out. I saw it was from the stomach & that we could do nothing for him. Gertie the servant showed the way to the hotel & I phoned for Dr Watson of Katoomba to come down. He was there in no time & he stayed till 2.15 am. In the meantime Clifford had had another attack & lost more blood. In spite of all this the pulse was quite strong & just the regular beat. Gertie & I went to be at 2.45 & in the morning I was surprised to learn that Clifford had had two more attacks. He lost about five pints of blood altogether. I phone down to Sydney to Mac & told Mrs Mac all about it. I had invited them out to dinner & the theatre after but we couldn’t go under the circumstances. I had a most awfully busy day running here there & everywhere besides phoning all over the place.
Mac wired he was coming up. His train was an hour late. It will take too long to give you all the details now but I can explain everything when I see you & we go through these letters together. Suffice to say when I got back to the house with Gertie, Alder & the nurse from Sydney the Katoomba nurse met me & said that Clifford was dead. I couldn’t credit it & I asked her three times if she was sure. I never want to go through another night like Friday.
My own grief was not conducive to clear thinking. Poor Frieda came down from Katoomba with Drs Watson & Mac & the look on that poor little kids face I shall never forget. She couldn’t cry & two or three times she came to me & put her head on my shoulder & sobbed for half an hour at a time. Mrs Todd was overcome with grief & somehow or other she came to me & laid her head on my shoulder. It was terrible.
On Saturday we got the body away (I had phoned up the night before & made all arrangements with the undertakers) & then we came down to Chatswood on Saturday night. That was the most awful time. Mrs T want off her head for a few minutes & went everywhere looking for Cliff & asking for him to answer. Eventually I got her under control & now she is bearing up splendidly, far better than I ever thought she could do.
I took Alder to the funeral on Monday & at first he wouldn’t go, but on condition I would stay with him all the time he consented. Poor little chap it was a big trail to him & he bore up bravely.
Now everything has to be settled & the arrangements I have made so far are exactly as Cliff wanted. More details later. I have appointed Orr our agent here. He ought to get the other agencies with our name at the back of him. He divides half the profits with Mrs Todd. I would be awfully pleased if you would write to Mrs Todd expressing your sympathy with her & the family. You have been talked about so often that they seem to know you intimately.
Now I haven’t time to write more dearie as the mail is leaving, but you see how busy I have been.
I only hope that our married life is a happy as theirs. It was an ideal existence, & they were bosom chums.
Under the circumstances I shall be here another two or three weeks to settle as much as I can.
With my dearest love sweetheart
Yours for all time
Harry
Mrs T will not listen to me leaving them until I leave Sydney definitely. She say Providence ordained I should come back & be with them in their hour of trial so I must stay & comfort her as well as I can.