Letters

I visit my great aunt Jewell every Friday. She is in her 80's and is one of my favorite people in the world!! The past few years have been extremely difficult for her...she has lost her husband and all of her siblings (one of which was my grandpa). My aunt Jewell does not have any children so I am sure life can get pretty lonely. I am so glad she decided to move back to the old camp house just a brisk walk away from ours. What I love about her generation is the way they kept in constant contact with one another by writing letters. My uncle Frank and aunt Jewell started courting though letters... She has hundreds that chronicle their relationship. How comforting it must be to pull those letters out and relive parts of their relationship... She has said how much she treasures each word...
My aunt Jewell was also very close to my aunt Jane who lived in Texas... But do you think the distance made these sisters grow apart..NO WAY!! Of course they talked on the phone almost every day, but on top of that they would write letters each week. At my aunt Jane's funeral a few months ago they mentioned how they hoped this generation would not let the art of writing letters fade away. Because we all know how easy that would be with texting, email, myspace, facebook, twitter etc... Since Mark and I have been working on our basement it has forced us to go through several boxes from our childhood forward... And we have found so many notes and letters from friends and past loves.... It was so precious to find!! I found notes Jennifer and I wrote back and forth in middle/high school. These days I am sure kids just text only for it to be lost forever. This generation won't have the joy of reliving a memory though finding notes or letters. So, you may ask yourself why am I writing about this? Well, I have decided to make it a point to sit down and write on paper a short note or letter to friends and family.... I also started and ongoing journal with Mark. We use just a small spiral notebook and write little notes or letters back and forth and leave it on each others night stand. It can be just a sentence or pages if we want. It really just chronicle our day or what we are feeling or it can remind us to do something..This probably sounds soooo corny, but it is fun :) You know how you get busy with kids and life and sometimes you just want to tell that person what you love about them or even what upsets you? Just getting it out on paper is good for the soul. I always look forward to see what he has written :) I love that we will have something to look back on one day when (god willing) we are 80. We can remember small details that we would have otherwise forgotten. So, maybe you can do something like this in your life? It does not have to be a journal...maybe it is just leaving a quick note saying I love you or I appreciate everything you do.. Whatever it is write it down. It will become some of your most prized possessions :)

Tiffany

The picture above you will see my aunt Jewell on the left and my aunt Jane on the right when they were in their early twenties. You can't beat black and white photos :)