Transcription
Dear Mr. Wilson
My heart is still singing with the delight of my homecoming a week ago, and I snatch this opportunity from pressing duties to thank you and the Committee for your friendly zeal that made the occasion such a source of satisfaction to my heart and mind.
How can I express to you verbally my home-warm feeling as I walked over Ivy Green, touching some of the furniture so familiar in my childhood, recalling my dear Cousin Leila and her children with whom I had such a joyous playtime, the Office where my mother first smiled upon me and the out-doors structure where I first sensed the tenderness of the foster-mother of my mind. How I adored all the flowers which loving hands had arranged in the rooms, the sunny, rain-sprinkled smell of the box-hedges and the magnolia-trees towering aloft in all their majesty!
Nor can I utter the warmth that flooded my heart as the crowd gathered round Miss Thomson and me, and the Mayor, you and others welcomed me back to my birthplace. The sweetest part of it all was the touching gift of pennies from the children of Tuscumbia for the happiness of the blind. It was truly a memorable day that I shall cherish among the past events and the portraits of my life gallery.
It is altogether wonderful for me to think of all the interest you have shown and the trouble you have taken to bring back to Ivy Green the rich charm and elegance of old.
With warmest greetings from us both to Mrs. Wilson and yourself, I am,
Cordially yours,
