204 - MERMOZ, Jean

MERMOZ, Jean L.A.S. “Jean,” Toulouse, Sunday [February 23, 1930], to his grandparents, the GILLETs; 2 pages, in-4. Training on seaplanes. “I returned from Perpignan today, unable to continue my test flights on Lake St. Laurent due to the snow and storm-force winds. My aircraft is ready. So we’ve decided to send it to Marseille, where I can continue my test flights in complete safety. I am to attempt the first transatlantic mail flight with the March 17 mail, departing from St. Louis [in Senegal] at 10 p.m.” He will visit his grandparents as soon as the test flights are completed. After giving an update on his mother, he mentions his “upcoming long journeys. I have absolute confidence in everything greater than ourselves and in myself. I will succeed; have no fear. It sometimes—often—seems to me that my life follows a flawless curve, an almost mathematical yet ideally ascending progression, and I believe in a very beautiful destiny that has been given to me and that I must know how to and be able to achieve. I have never been afraid… not even of being afraid, and I would like you to have the same sense of security, the same certainties as I do… believe in me”… Source: - Jean Mermoz (1901–1936); - Gabrielle Gillet-Mermoz (1880–1955); - Then passed down through the family