Letter from Dad

I was sitting in the chilly attic at my mom’s house on a November morning in 2020. My job was to clean out the attic so Mom could decide what she was keeping and what she was ditching before she and Lisa moved the following month.

I encountered a box of old memorabilia that Mom had packed away decades ago. Everything in the box was interesting, but it was a brief letter from my grandfather – Dad’s dad – that riveted me.

Grandpap wrote the letter on December 17, 1964. He notes that Dottie Jo had just come home with the baby, my cousin Christine. He writes about some insurance issue, trimming a tree in the yard, and the potential hunting adventures of my uncles. He also mentions a tragic fire that happened not far away from Mt. Savage recently.

He then notes, “If you can’t come for Christmas, come when you can. Merry Christmas, Dad.”

Grandpap’s final sentence is, “P.S. Take it easy Ann.” I didn’t get that immediately, but then it dawned on me. Dad and Mom had probably recently revealed that Mom was pregnant with me, which would explain Grandpap’s concern that Mom “take it easy.” That would make this letter one of the earliest acknowledgments of my existence.

This letter from Dad is a keeper.

~217~