Anyway, back to the amazing gift she gave me. When her health was declining as she battled cancer, my Grandma went through all of her correspondence and sorted out what she had received from her grandchildren. After she passed away, I received a stack of cards and letters that I had sent her in my childhood up through the year she passed.
I cannot even begin to express how much joy there is for me in reading those childish, innocent letters to my Grandma, recounting to her the important events of my young life. In the one below, I tell her about my Dad taking me and my sister to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for my birthday. I have always remembered that occasion because being in a large family, we did not go to the movie theater very often. Here my brief letter captures that event and also shows what surely must have been one of my first attempts at typing. This is from 1971; I was eight when I wrote it.
Others, like this one, tell her about family activities like a vacation at the beach the summer of 1975. Oh, how I loved those vacations when we rented a beach house. I think on this occasion we had the house for a month and I loved being able to get up and walk out on the sand, spending the days swimming, building sand castles, and boogie boarding. What fun!
With her gift to me, my Grandma gave me back little details from my youth--a purse I loved and carried everywhere, a memory from her that my brother Gary is the one who made me laugh the most when I was a baby, or that my brother Dave gave me a $1 for my birthday and my sister gave me a pair of socks--that otherwise would have faded from my memory with the passing years. Her thoughtful gesture has rewoven the fabric of my life, putting pieces back together in such a meaningful and poignant way.As I think about what a wonderful gift this was and will continue to be to me, it reminds me that I need to take the time to move away from the computer and pick up my pen and write some letters!
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