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After the death of Thomas and John Paul Merton's mother in 1921, Elsie Hauck Holahan came into the house of Merton's maternal grandparents, the Jenkins, to help take care of the two boys. She stayed in the household to take care of Merton's grandmother, "Mattie" Baldwin Jenkins. Elsie Hauck was the widow of Captain Patrick Holahan, who had fought in the Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916. After both of Thomas Merton's grandparents had died, his uncle, Harold Brewster Jenkins, inherited his parents house and married Elsie Hauck in 1938. When Merton moved back to Long Island in the 1930's, he grew close to Elsie's mother, Freida "Nanny" Hauck. Nancy Hauck Boettcher informed Merton in 1964 of Nanny's poor health and sent him a telegram in 1965 informing him of her death. Merton writes with his condolescences to Elsie. (Source: The Road to Joy, p. 57 and 71.)
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See also published letters from Merton to Elsie Jenkins in The Road to Joy, pp. 71-72 and 82-83.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1965/06/16 |
TAL[c] from Merton |
Nancy sent me a wire about Nanny, and I offered Mass for her Monday morning besides praying for her |
✓ |
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1967/12/31 |
TL[x] from Merton |
Thanks for the card: I was glad to get a little news from Harold. Sorry I haven't been writing |
✓ |
[to Else and Harold Brewster Jenkins - see Merton's carbon copy in "Jenkins, Harold Brewster" file]
«detailed view» |
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