Ogorje 05/12/1945
Dear brother and sister in law
I can tell you that I am alive and well as are my children. But I have sad news our brother Mate died on 10 of September this year. I will never forget him, he was sick, problems with his heart.
Now my dear brother and sister in law when I received your letter I was so happy it was good to hear that you are alive and well. I just feel sorry for cousin Nikola, but what can you do. Dear sister in law I received a letter that you sent in March, it came here in July. The letter that you wrote in July came in December.
My dear sister in law please write often just we can know that you are alive and well. Please describe some things in your letter like how old are your children and if you can please use our language. I will write about my children, Mate is 24, Jakov 21, Iva is 20 and she is married, she lives now in Pribude. Grga is 18, Ante 15, Marta 14, Jandra 10, Pera 12, Jela is 8 and little Ivan only 1 year old. Jakov and Grga are in the army, Mate has been released from it for a while.
Now I will try to describe these four years of war here, we were lucky and were not hurt, but we were scared. Constant fire from German and Italian weapons made us run to the forest and even spend a night there. We were so scared that we didn’t even work in the fields, few people died. Our house was damaged by enemy fire, but we were lucky to stay alive. Now finally the war is over and we can live in peace.
Now my dear brother and sister in law nothing else is new. Greetings from your sisters Jandra, Marta, Cvita. Brother in law Nikola died some time ago, and Jandra has only one son and he has two kids. Marta’s son died and Cvita she doesn’t have kids. Her husband joined the partisans and we don’t know what happened to him.
Now receive greetings from my family and me. Bye your never forgotten brother Rada Josip
Please provide corrections as needed....
Researcher::
Jim Radja
Vienna, Virginia, US of A
