Reading · little bird poet

The Missed Goodbye

Harrison Hot Springs, BC → Ladner, B.C.

It’s a small, breathless note, but it opens a door onto a side of this story that we haven’t seen before: possible illness, convalescence, and a resort known as much for healing as for holiday.

This week’s card from the chocolate box takes us somewhere new: a hotel room at Harrison Hot Springs, just after a departing bus has rounded the corner.

There is no leisurely holiday chat here. The person sending the postcard arrives at Jenie’s room to find her already gone, catches sight of the bus leaving the hotel, and writes anyway, apologizing for the missed goodbye, saying they feel better, and asking about a mutual friend named Hanna.

The sender’s handwriting is quick and slanted, with looping ascenders and a tendency to run words together mid-sentence: “foundyou,” “came down.”

The writing gives the impression of someone moving quickly, still caught in the urgency of the missed departure.

Near the top of the card, an opening line has been begun, crossed out, and revised to: “I’m sorry I missed you.” The correction gives the message an unusually candid, in-the-moment quality compared with the more composed cards we have seen so far.

Worth noting: The signature is difficult to read. The closing appears to say, “I’m your friend, Geo. [?] Wyllie,” or something similar, but the loose scrawl could easily be mistaken for another name.

It is a reminder that some names in this series may remain uncertain until another card provides the missing clue. Because I cannot decipher the sender’s name with confidence, I will refer to the writer simply as the sender.

The following is a lightly edited transcription, with punctuation added for readability and uncertain words marked in brackets.

Dear friend Jenie,
I’m sorry I missed you. I went up to your room but found you gone, and when I came down the bus just passed the corner of the hotel. I’m much better today. The fellow across from me is able to walk around. I asked Hanna to drop you a few words. I think he did. I hope you arrived safely. Give my best regards to friends I know there.
I’m your friend,
Geo. [?] Wyllie

The card reads like the tail end of a shared stay: the sender missed Jenie by minutes and caught only a glimpse of her bus as it rounded the hotel corner.

The image itself is a mass-produced tourist postcard rather than a personal photograph. Published by Valentine & Sons and printed in Great Britain, it shows the Empress of India, one of Canadian Pacific’s most recognizable ships.

Built in 1890 and 1891, the Empress of India arrived in Vancouver on April 28, 1891, becoming the first of the company’s Empress liners to reach the city. Along with the Empress of Japan and the Empress of China, she served Canadian Pacific’s trans-Pacific route between Vancouver and ports in Asia, including Yokohama.

Canadian Pacific’s ships became familiar symbols of Vancouver and British Columbia, appearing frequently on postcards whether or not they had any connection to the sender’s journey. The image does not appear to relate directly to the message. It may simply have been a recognizable British Columbia postcard that happened to be available, although we cannot know whether the ship held any personal meaning for the sender.

By 1909, Harrison Hot Springs, BC was no longer a rustic outpost. It was already an established resort. The railway had reached nearby Harrison Mills in 1885, and the St. Alice Hotel and Bath House opened on November 1, 1886, with room for approximately 160 guests.

From the beginning, people came for health as well as recreation. An 1886 newspaper account reported that visitors claimed relief from dyspepsia, liver complaints, rheumatism and paralysis. The mineral springs were also promoted as beneficial for conditions such as rheumatism and arthritis.

Later accounts describe some early guests, particularly wealthier visitors, staying for four to six weeks at a time. The difficulty of the journey may have made longer visits more practical, especially for those who had come hoping to recover their health.

Suddenly, the brief report that the “fellow across from me” is able to walk around does not feel incidental. He may have been another guest recovering from illness or injury, although the card does not tell us how long either of them had been staying.

That history shifts the mood of the card. What first appears to be a hurried holiday note may instead be a brief dispatch from someone who had come to Harrison hoping to regain their strength.

Research Notes

Date mailed: October 7, 1909
Place mailed: Harrison Hot Springs, B.C.
Time: Postmark partially legible; morning collection
Date received: October 8, 1909, AM
Card type: Souvenir Post Card, watermarked “Souvenir Post Card” across the message side
Publisher: The Valentine & Sons Publishing Co.
Printed in: Great Britain
Image: C.P.R. S.S. Empress of India, Vancouver, B.C.
Postage: Canada 1 cent, Edward VII issue
Addressed to: Miss J.A. Brown, Ladner, B.C.

Cast of Characters

The Postcards in a Box series has been running for four weeks now, and during that time we have begun to assemble a small cast of characters. (see all the links below)

We first met Annie Brown and S. Brown, recipients of Postcard No. 1, sent from Victoria by R. W. Fleming, about whom we still know very little. Postcard No. 2 introduced E. S. Brown in Ladner and Marshall Smith, writing from Los Angeles. Then came two postcards from Helen to Miss Annie L. Browne, whom I suspect may be the same Annie Brown from the first card, despite the variation in spelling. Helen appears to have known Annie well enough to ask her to send a black skirt she needed for fishing. And now, with Postcard No. 5, we meet J.A. Brown, referred to in the message as “Jenie,” along with an unidentified sender writing from Harrison Hot Springs.

Whether Jenie belongs to the same Brown family, or is perhaps someone we have already encountered under another name, remains one more question waiting in the box.

Is J.A. “Jenie” Brown related to Annie L. Browne, Annie Brown, or S. Brown, or is she a separate correspondent who happened to share the Ladner address and surname?
Who was the sender, and what was their relationship to Jenie: friend, sibling, or suitor?
Who was Hanna, the person the sender “asked... to drop you a few words”: a fellow guest, a nurse, or a mutual friend?
What illness or injury, if any, brought the sender and the “fellow across from me” to Harrison Hot Springs?

This card leaves us with more questions than it answers: a sender whose name I still can’t read with full confidence, a recipient who may or may not be someone we’ve already met, and a hotel room that was empty by the time the letter’s real purpose, saying goodbye, could be delivered in person.

That feels like a fitting place to set the box down for a moment.

Thank you for all your messages and positive comments about this series.

I’ve loved sharing the mystery of these postcards with you. I’m taking a short break from the project to work on another writing project and I’ll be back with the next postcard in a few weeks.

I am researching this collection as an interested amateur—not as a historian, but as a writer trying to follow the small clues these postcards have left behind.

If I have overlooked something, please message me

Postcards from the Box, No. 5

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