Fifty-fourth 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. Her third child, a son, was born there in February 1916. The family has now relocated (again) to a home near Valmiera, and the Russian Revolution is in full swing. For more background, see here, and click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

If there is mention of a recognizable historical figure and event, I will provide a Wikipedia link so that you can read more about the events that Alise is describing.

January 7, 1918

We celebrated Papa’s birthday with an abundant dinner table, together with old and new friends. Papa did not get any presents, instead we dressed a small Roma (Gypsy) child who, in the cold of 10 degrees, only had a shirt and a small blanket. We dressed him from head to toe and fed him well, and our people were very happy.