NA
September 25, 1979
by D'Cruz, Michael
September 25, 1979. NA. Good. D'Cruz was living in the Sacred Heart School Cum Orphanage, an affiliate of the Christian Children's Fund, in India, as we know since this is stamped as the header of each letter. The sponsor, mispelled by the orphan as "sponser", we would guess was American and probably had never met face-to-face their ward, but rather were donors in a Christian charity that sought to add a personalized touch to the giving. Whatever the case, the orphan does end each letter by referring to himself as "Your loving son". The letters all follow a formula, beginning with thanking the sponsor, always for a letter received and in one case, a $5 gift. The letters also are entirely upbeat, relating something nice in the life of the orphan. In one letter, this is a picnic. In another, he speaks of a pet monkey owned by the father, meaning, we assume, the priest. We have to think that the letters were expected of the orphans, and the authorities in the orphanage set aside time for the letter writing and provided guidelines and instruction on the form the letters would take. That said, the letters are rife with spelling and grammatical errors, as one would expect of a eight or nine year old, the age we would guess D'Cruz was at the time. Still, one could see the letters as quite well written given the likelihood that English wasn't D'Cruz's first language. The most special aspect of these letters are their illustrations. These are delightful, and indisputably quite well done for a child of the orphan's presumed age. They include a colored pencil drawing of what we believe must be a self-portrait, with the boy sitting with a sketchbook cradled in his lap and a fawn at his side, a pencil sketch of a flower, and a drawing of a flower girl, a goose and a barn. The letters are all on ruled paper, 22 by 18 cm, and two of them are one sheet, with the drawing on the back of one of them, and one is two sheets attached by tape, with two drawings. The letters sign off with D'Cruz writing his case number. We believe that this particular orphanage was in Mookkannur, India, based on a Google search. The letters have folds and moderate wear.
(Inventory #: 005688)