Letter Update

December 1st is World Aids Day and it always makes me a little sad to think about the generation of men we lost during that other pandemic- you know the one people ignored. It is also the birthday of a dear friend who died a couple years ago from stage 4 melanoma. So suffice to say, there was a little dark cloud to my day today. I’m so lucky I love my job and my patients, so that brings me joy.

I got an email from the Quaker Librarian and College Archivist at Guildford College in Greensboro, NC today. I reached out to her last week because my Grandfather used to donate his time there and when he died, a lot of his papers were given to them. My Uncle David, the son of my grandparents told me that he had been the one to give the boxes full of documents to the college and suggested that perhaps the other side of my grandparents’ letters could be there. The majority of the letters are my Grandfather writing to my Grandmother. I wonder what is my Grandmother’s response to all these romantic letters. Was she sweet back then ? Was she a secret softy? I choose to believe that she was and I long to read her thoughts.

Alas, the email said that she went through all the documents and she didn’t find anything that matched my description. She wrote, “I worked with you grandfather for many years. It’s hard to imagine it’s already been ten years since he passed. I still feel like he is with us here in the Quaker archives. It isn’t unusual for me to find a note he has posted on a file or I come across someone who knew him through Quaker and/or family history.”

So he lives on in the hearts and minds of those dearest to him. It makes me smile thinking of him watching me tap tap on my computer keys. I feel him with me so closely as I type these words. Everyone who knew him adored him.

Enjoy the next letter from my Grandfather to my Grandmother….forever the romantic.

My sweet Nina knows exactly what I need after a long day….