Letter Writing

When I met her I was 23, she was 70. We became fast friends. We lived in a small town, and our houses were about 30 feet apart. My dining room windows looked into her kitchen. We talked everyday, but if the weather was bad we would call one another on the phone and stand at the windows to talk so that we could still see one another. When Mary and I met, I was pregnant with my third child, Collin. She enjoyed each day of my pregnancy as much as I did. She also enjoyed my two older children who were three and eighteen months when we moved in. Mary became like a grandmother to all of us. Four years later, when I was pregnant with Abigail, she was again thrilled. We were a huge part of one another's lives.

We moved to another state when Abigail was just nine months old. What a loss! I'm not sure who cried the hardest on the day we said good-bye: my husband and I, our children, or Mary. We went from a small town where we knew nearly everyone to a big city where our neighbors didn't want to know who we were. I missed my friends. Mary and many others. Sure, I made knew friends, but you know the saying, "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold."

I learned the art of letter writing. Yes, I had written letters before, but tried to fill them with *important* news. Now, I was really learning what letter writing was all about: not losing touch. Mary and I had been an integral part of each other's lives for five years. You can't stop that on a dime. I learned to write about the days, no matter how dull they seemed. I wrote about the children, things that they said, how tall they were getting, etc. I described the house, and how I was decorating things. Mary and each of my other friends commented on how beautiful my letters were. "So newsy", they would say. I didn't see what all the fuss was about.

I'm proud to say that Autumn has seemingly inherited or learned my talent. She too writes to faraway friends, and gets comments on her lovely letters. Mary is now 83, and I am 36. A lot has changed in thirteen years! I wrote to her two weeks ago, and anxiously waited for her reply. I received a response earlier this week. In this fast paced world full of email, instant messenger, and blogs there is a thrill for me to find a letter in the mailbox. Mary feels the same. She told me so in her letter...



thanks to http://until_then.tripod.com/