Domestic Poisons: clue #7

April 30th, 1900

My Darling Jimmy,

I know you must be busy still with your career, but won’t you consider taking some time off? Your partner can handle things for at least a little while. The strife you relayed to me in your last letter worries me so. I must admit that nearly a decade without a child to raise is not the life I pictured for you. However, I will be candid with you in the way that only a mother can be, containing all the love my heart holds for you, my eldest son. I had given up on you taking a spouse! I felt such a mixture of relief, joy, and betrayal when I received your news of such a swift and private ceremony all those years ago. When I met Tillie during that first visit, I saw the hallmarks of young love and was elated to see that your window for such an experience had not, in fact, passed. I know you yearn for another child, and I cannot express the joy that raising you brought me, but maybe it is time to focus on the joys that you do have. You and Tillie found one another at a time when we (your brothers and I) feared you would be a perpetual bachelor. 

It is her responsibility to give you children, but you must still be prepared to be a good father. A good father does not complain to his mother in letter after letter that his wife has made him sick with cold tea! Tell her how you like it to be steeped, and ask her to brew it again. Your father was so kind, repeating himself time and again for me, and by the time you were born, I had learned how to keep a home that was comfortable and presentable to those within it. Perhaps it is time I visit again? I could give Tillie a refresher on how to make a proper home for my darling Jimmy. 

Lovingly,

Mother