My Dearest Thomasin Alton,

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Creative writing assignment

My Dearest Thomasin Alton,

We have not spoken for many years and I know our last meeting was difficult for you, my dear, but you did not stay around very long.  I need to explain a few things that you would not allow me to explain when you were last here.   I know that you must be very angry and surprised but please let me say how sorry I am that I did not tell you before about your father.  He was a good man, really, he would have been really proud of you.  

Let me tell you more about him and the circumstances to why your existence had to be kept secret.  Your father was Diggory Venn and using the words of the time you were his illegitimate daughter.  This was the reason that we had to keep very quiet about who your father was.  At the time you were born it was considered very shameful to be with child out of wedlock and in most situations the child was taken away and put with a married couple. I did not want this to happen. I had heard of some terrible things happening to some children and I loved you too much.  I hoped that Diggory would come back and I kept waiting and waiting.  He was such a good man but he was breaking my heart I loved him yet he was in love with another woman. This is the story of how I named you: he sent me a letter just before you were born and he was telling me that he was a reddleman on Egdon heath and he was following the trace of the woman that had stolen his heart from me. I got word to him hoping that he would come rushing back but he, being the gentleman that he was, said that it would not be fair for him to marry me as he could not be the husband he should be because he did not love me.  How could such a gentleman cause so much pain? What was I going to do?  I received a letter three days after you were born requesting that you were called Thomasin and as a last act of love I agreed. It was not till much later that I learned of the significance of the name but it does suit you very well and it is a good link to your father.  He regularly sent me money for your welfare and he would send you a letter every fortnight.  My love for him had now turned to anger and I kept these from you and I promised my self that I was never going to tell you about him.  When I saw you two and a half years ago with my grand son I knew I had to tell you about him; I desperately regret not telling you about him before. I beg for your forgiveness.

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Let me tell you about some of the things that he did so you can begin to know him.  Diggory's father, your grandfather, was a local dairyman but Diggory chose to follow his own destiny to be a reddleman. In case you don't know what that is, it is a person that supplies farmers with reddings for their sheep so they did not lose their livestock.  As a result of his job he turned bright red.  He was quite young at the time but he was not a hugely talkative person so this job suited him well as he spent ...

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