Letters from my Grandmother

I took photos of some of my favorite things at grandma’s house.

I received a letter from my grandmother in the mail recently. Grandma may be the only person I actually write letters to any more. On paper that is. They are still trying to figure out how to use their newfangled CD player after all. I don’t believe my grandparents will ever own a computer, much less figure out how to send an email.

I love this about them, actually. I love to get Grandma’s letters. There is something timeless about them, something that sounds just like home to me. Just like her house stays exactly the same, no matter how long it is since I last returned. She finally changed out the curtains that had been in her kitchen windows my entire life after I gave her some lace curtains to replace them.

She always wanted lace curtains. Ever since Grandpa took her to England. Grandpa always thought she was being ridiculous. I may have taken matters into my own hands and sewn her some.

Everyone should get letters like hers, full of the same everyday goings on of a life lived in one place, settled and content. I love her handwriting, tidy, well shaped script. My children will learn to read cursive just so they can read the letters my grandmother writes to them. A few years ago it occurred to me to save all of them. I don’t know how much more time my over 80 year old grandmother has left to write her grandchildren letters and putter in her garden, and I think I’ll want to have these to look at once she’s gone.

Here’s an excerpt.

We are fine but have had lots of rain. It has showered the last two nights. Our garden is wet, when we dig up the potatoes they are muddy so we need to take the hose and wash them. They are always growing and do taste good. We are also picking raspberries and a few strawberries. So have made some jam and jelly.

I want to share this wonderful gift with all of you. I thought, “I’ll start a Letters from Grandmother series. I’ll publish my letter to her and her response and everyone can see how wonderful my grandmother is, and what a blessing it is to be able to still write my granmother. I’ll ask her about child rearing and house work and … It would probably be better to get her permission before I do such a thing…”

So I imagined how that conversation would go.

Me-“Grandma, I wondered if you would mind if I showed your letters to some friends of mine.”

Grandma- “Oh my, well I don’t know why you would want to do that, they aren’t very interesting.”

Me- “Well, I really like to get them and I think my friends would get something out of them too.”

Grandma – “I suppose if it were only a few friends….”

Me- Well… it would be more than a few… you see, I would post them on my blog?”

Grandma – “I don’t know what that is.”

Me – “Well, it’s sort of like a website… an online publication of sorts where I publish things I write.”

Grandma – “Oh really, like on the computer.”

Me – “Yes, exactly.”

Grandma – “Bryan’s boy Brendan is quite good at computers I hear, he even has a job working on them somehow.”

Me – “Yes grandma, he’s a web developer.”

Grandma – “Do you get paid to do your writing?”

Me – “Not usually… It’s more just for fun.”

Grandma – “Oh, so you just write for fun on the computer?”

Me – “Yes.”

Grandma “Are there are lot of people who read it?”

Me – “Actually yes, quite a few.”

Grandma – “My goodness. You don’t say? I can’t imagine wanting to read something on the computer when you could just pick up a book.”

Me – “You have a point.”

…

Grandma – “Do you know any of the people who read your writing?”

me – “Some, but not most of them, not in real life. But if they blog then I get to kind of fell like I know them because then I read what they wrote and they read what I wrote and we leave comments and have conversations and it feels like we’re very good friends. Sometimes I even meet them in real life an then they are usually very good friends very quickly because we have so much in common already.”

Grandma – “You don’t say!”

me – “Yes well, it’s a really great community and I can meet people without ever leaving the house and feel connected to other moms out there because you know how lonely it can be to be raising little ones, you know with your 11 children that you raised on a farm… Anyway, what do you think? Could I publish your letters to me for other people to read?”

Grandma – “?”

Well that’s just the thing. I don’t know what she would say. Though I have a feeling she wouldn’t say yes.

Shall I ask her?

Here is the way she signs off on her last letter.

I am glad that you are getting help with your meals and cleaning up by the children they need to help with the work. I must close for now. Enjoy your day. Thank you again for writing; with our love. Grandmother