Sixteenth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. For the background, see here, click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

March 5, 1916

Thanks be to God, again so far and on my feet. On February 22nd, at 9 o’clock in the morning, our son was born. A lot of happiness and joy for Papa, my heart also fills with pride and joy, holding the hand of this small dear creature. His sisters are already in love with their little brother. Dagmāra, who is still only 1.5 years old, talks only about “baklaba” [NB: toddler-speak of some kind? Possibly “brālis laba”, meaning “brother good”]. The boy is very strong and handsome, I’m sorry only about his small ear, which for some reason is not the same as the other. Maybe all of the horrible experiences of the past while had an impact, maybe the fault is also to be found somewhere else. That is God’s mind and His secret. We will love him even more. We are now settled in the upstairs room at Kroņi. If someone had told me this earlier, that it would be so, I would not believe them and I would be angry. Yes – you may see the end of your nose, but not the end of your life! The hardest part – TrÅ«tiņa and DagÄ«te are ill with whooping cough. The cough is very strong. TrÅ«de is bleeding from her nose, Daga from the eyes. We have to protect the boy from catching it – if that is possible – the heart tires just thinking about it. Papa is certainly earning love, who sacrifices to serve us and care for us. No work is too hard or simple for him, he will do everything without complaining. He even washes his son in the evenings, and wraps him up and puts him to bed at night, so that things are not hard for me and so that I can rest and gather new energy. We still owe him so much love. We will try to grant this to him in this life.