Dear Cyndy,

Thank you for your letter. I hope that by now the purpura
has improved and left you in a less uncomfortable state. I
reviewed our correspondence of last summer and found the
reference to my question whether the purpura might be 
related to the macular disorder and have some bearing on
its treatment. I quoted to you my Yale hematologist brother-
in-law as saying that he had never seen Henoch Schoenlein
purpura in an adult, then promised to do some research and
"get back to me." By the time he did, you had already
received the intraocular injection without complications
and it seemed unnecessary to pursue the issue. You should know
by now that I'm always interested and pleased to try to find
the answers to any questions you might have - without being
intrusive.

I'm also open to questions on legal matters. I spent several
hours today scanning documents potentially relevant to the 
Estate Tax into computer files, of which I already collected
more than 150, and expect before I'm finished, there will be
twice as many. My plan is to prepare a compact disc containing
all conceivably relevant data which Klemens may submit to the
IRS in the event he needs to file an estate tax return. I plan
also to facilitate Klemens' work as the executor, by preparing
at intervals of a few months, up-to-date estate tax returns
with the pertinent explanations of why no estate tax is due.
Anticipating inter vivos the questions which the executor must
answer, will make his or her task much easier, and is likely to
save the estate a great deal of money, especially if the 
executor is not a family member and is paid for his work.

As soon as I've made the end of the year decisions concerning
liquidation of retirement assets and funding of 529 College Tuition
plans, I expect to file an application for a tax-exempt "School
Street Charitable Trust" to receive any estate assets which would
otherwise be taxable. The immediate consequence, I hope, will
be to spoil the appetite of the IRS for our estate. I rather
suspect they won't want to spend as much energy on us, if the
result of their efforts would be to funnel assets not to the
Treasury but to the Charitable Trust. Conceivably they won't
even find it worth their while to peruse the three or four
or five hundred documents on the CD which will contain the
financial history of the family.

Nathaniel, home from Yale for the Thanksgiving vacation, seemed
more composed and self-assured than I have ever seen him. He
came for supper, and we spoke German. His vocabulary is limited.
I attribute the absence of accent, - he speaks like a native,
to the quality of his hearing. He is planning to conduct
Beethoven's First and Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphonies at a
concert he hopes to organize in Belmont during his winter vacation.
Next summer he wants to spend 6 to 8 weeks in Germany. One of his
teachers advised him to write to Simon Rattle, the conductor
of the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony. He as also been promised
a position as one of two assistant conductors of the Yale
Symphony next year. I remind him of the competitiveness of the
career he envisions, and I urge him to prepare also for rejection
and disappointment. He seems to take the uncertainty in stride.
Benjamin has been working hard in school. He hopes to be admitted
to Dartmouth next year.  Rebekah, although academically successful,
did not find happiness at Harvard and has taken a one year vacation
to attend a farm school in central Massachusetts. She seems to be
content, happy to be working outdoors; will return to Harvard next
fall to finish her senior year. She's talking about studying to be
a large animal veterinarian, which is exactly what her mother claims
to have become, working as a physician at the Leahy Clinic. Leah
is starring in the first year at Belmont High School. Margaret and
I are working hard at getting old.

I hope you've recovered from this spell of purpura, please keep me
informed, and please give my best to Ned.

Jochen