Miss F.L. Schade lived in Toledo, the port city at the western tip of Lake Erie in northwest Ohio.
In 1918, Toledo was already an important industrial town, known for glass-making, but the city was to become a center of the auto-assembly industry within another decade.
Miss Schade had neglected correspondence with her friend, Emma.
Emma lived in Antwerp, a village in northwest Ohio, on the border of Indiana.
Antwerp grew up as the Wabash and Erie Canal was completed to carry goods to eastern markets via Lake Erie and the Erie Canal in New York State.
In 1918, Antwerp thrived as a center of logging and milling.
Antwerp is 76 miles southwest of Toledo.
In March of 1918, Emma sent an Easter greeting to her friend, asking, “Are you dead or alive, I never hear from you…”
Emma wonders what happened to the letter she sent a month ago, but signs off with a casual, “Ta ta”.
The face of the postcard bears an embossed egg-shaped medallion in which two chicks appear. The medallion is encircled with daisies.
At the lower right is the legend, “A Happy Easter”.
The postcard was mailed from Antwerp on March 21.
Easter was early in 1918, falling on March 31.
Other memorabilia from 1918 shows that many Americans celebrated the holiday with bittersweet emotions this year – as war continued to rage in the trenches of battlefields across Europe.
One hopes that Miss Schade improved her letter-writing habits, that Emma was happy to hear from her friend, and that they (and all of Christendom) enjoyed the feast of Easter.