This second telegram from the family scrapbook is from nearly 61 years ago, and it's a sad one. I do not know the "Ellen" who wrote it, but I was able to figure out who she was.
It's an official Western Union telegram, measuring eight inches across. According to the key, the NL at the start of the message indicates that this was a Night Letter.
WU028 NL PD TDHMN MUNSTER IND JULY 14 1957.I suspect that the wording and abruptness of this isn't terribly different from how a text-message exchange might go down in 2018.
MR AND MRS H H ADAMS.=
5 OAK CREST LANE WALLINGFORD PENN.=
WHILE JOHN EDIE AND JACK AND I WERE AT DINNER THIS EVENING.= JOHN HAD A HEART ATTACK AND THAT WAS THE END
I CAN¶T REALIZE IT YET THAT HE IS GONE JACK AND EDIE ARE STAYING WITH ME TONIGHT HOW GRATEFUL I AM THAT THEY WERE WITH ME WHEN IT HAPPENED.=
ELLEN.===
Using the date, location and the first names, I determined that the deceased was John G. Capps Sr., who must have known my great-grandfather from their shared occupations in electrical engineering in Indiana. Here is Capps' obituary from the July 15, 1957, edition of The Times of Munster, Indiana:
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