I know better than to ask that you send Matilda to safety, but I hope this information may be useful to you.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Sorrel Newry
Date: 26 February 1861
To: Mrs Mei Tao, 1 Kwai Chung Road, Kwai Fong, Hong Kong.
From: Miss Xiong Tao, c/- Terang Millinery, Terang, Victoria, Australia
Mother,
You are the arsenic in the wallpaper of my life. Whenever I think my life is good, and safe, and beautiful, and I can breathe … there I am, breathing in the poison of you. I know I should rip you out and replace you with something else, something that doesn’t kill me, but I just can’t.
Most of all I hate those moments when I remember your hands. Hands that wiped dirt and childhood tears from my face; that washed my clothes and prepared my food; that slapped me when I misbehaved
