So I called Robert and he told me to come out to his home.
When I went out to his home, I brought Lee's seabag, Mr. Rankin, with
me. And I stayed there just a short time. And Robert Oswald would not
let me have Lee's seabag. And there were a few letters in there from
Lee in the seabag.
And so I don't have the seabag.
You can read this letter, then, this way. That he is telling me he is
defecting to Russia.
We all agree there.
Then this same letter could be read the way I read it, as a mother.
After three days he is leaving his mother. But we had a talk. When Lee
arrived home--and I will go into this thoroughly. I was ashamed when
he arrived home. I was in a one bedroom and bath and a small kitchen.
And my son came in about 2 o'clock in the morning. I have never lived
lavishly, but we have always had a nice clean little moderate house.
And, remember, I was destitute. I had no money. You have the affidavits
evidently from the Red Cross. If you don't, I have copies.
The first thing I said to him, "Honey, the first thing we will have to
do is to move and find a decent place."
I had a studio couch, which has two parts. The top part I put on the
floor for my son to sleep on that particular night, in the one room.