Above: a picture I love of my mom and dad (circa before I was even a twinkle in their eyes!)
Below: my grandmother and mom in Germany, where they were both born and raised. My grandma has been in the hospital this week, but she’s one tough lady and if anyone can live to 100 it’s her.
When I was in Connecticut recently meeting my nephew, I took a photo of where my mom’s ashes reside at my brother’s house. I think the lei that’s surrounding them is from a big party she went to in our hometown just before she died. I can remember her getting ready that night, she wore a blonde wig and a denim dress, she seemed happy to be getting out and socializing. I’m not sure why we kept that lei.
My mom would have been 62 years old today. That sounds so young for the amount of time that’s passed since I’ve seen her. This letter she left me was actually written when she went in for a routine surgery about 12 years before she died. The postscript always makes me smile, it says, in part: “Be patient with people. Everybody might not be used to your ways, like the clothes you like.”
This letter is from my dad to my mom circa 1970, when she went to visit family in Bremerhaven, Germany (her hometown). He wrote it when he got back from dropping her off at the airport.
Crinkly paper air mail letters are so much better than email.
