Cape Town, 27 June, 1900
To my dearly beloved wife, Taube Kretzmar, Be well and live in joy and good fortune, and to my dear children, zollen lebben, son David, son Noah, and daughters Leah and Freda, all be well!
Dearest wife, I have safely received your letter of Erev Shavuot and with the news that you are all well. I was happy to read it, PG that we should always have good health and good luck, that my letter should also find you in good health. I can also tell you that TG I am fine and in good health and cheerful. Business is quieter now, more so than in Johannesburg, and PG he will recompense us later for what we are losing now. So we have to be strong and hopeful because only He can improve our lot.
About where you ask how I spent Pesach and Shavuot I can tell you that I got over them and it is as well they’re over and PG there will come better Yomtovim in future. With other people these Yomtovim pass and they don’t even notice them while with me it’s ages between them, like a fast on a hot summer’s day, where you wish that it would be over already. On the weekday’s my thoughts are with business affairs. Meanwhile, one is depressed and one does not feel the pressure of the galut! But alas Yomtov or Shabbat the pages of the diary are turning over of the past days and of the present saga. But enough now of these Yomtov ‘pleasures’, one has to hold tight so the days and the years go by. May God have mercy on us and provide us with better days.
I’m wondering why my brother Yaacov has not signed the letter and you don’t write even a gurus from them. I ask you to send me my brother’s address because I have not received any letters from him and I have been waiting for them. I would have written him but I have not his address, maybe he has changed his address. Therefore, please send me his address. Please excuse me this time, I am closing my writing although the letter is short and small. Don’t be upset, I will improve next time. Be well, happy and cheerful as it wishes you, Your dearly devoted husband, TuvyeKretzmar