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Time Travel To The ‘50s
Vignettes from old journals — Mom’s Letters
~ Time Travel ~
Mom saved all the letters she received after leaving home. We found her beautiful cedar chest chock full of them at the end of her long life. The treasure ended up with me. This weekend I tackled the 1950s box of those letters. There I was re-introduced to an 18 year old free spirited young woman through my letters home to Minnesota from my college dorm. What fun this is! I quite like her!
In this box I also found an assortment of letters from siblings — to be returned to them. And then there were the weekly letters from my grandparents. Many to Mom from her mom in Michigan. Her dad was a pretty prolific correspondent as well! And more from the grandparents in South Dakota. I can almost hear their long gone voices as I read! Even my Grandpa K — although I can’t read his letters -they are all in Dutch.
Not to forget the news that flowed between my parent’s siblings and themselves! And those between my parents when they were separated by visits home or meetings away. News of loss when Grandma V died. News of illness or scheduled surgeries and the unspoken fear that underlies such worries; fear that is ensconced in faith and cradled in words about trusting in God. Many of the envelopes hold comforting blankets woven of words from friends and family far and wide.
