Dear Grandchildren
Dear Grandchildren,
This is the strangest period in my lifetime and I hope soon that Covid-19 will be a bleak period in world history that never occurs again. The fact that we are quarantined in our homes, wearing facemarks and plastic gloves when we have to go out is just weird. Really, really weird.
The only way I know to describe it is by saying it reminds me of an old television show that you have never heard of (you can google it) called The Twilight Zone. I used to watch it with my mom and it always scared me, but back then I was scared of everything.
This is the introduction that came on before every segment.
While being quarantined has been strange, to say the least, it’s been good in a lot of ways too. People have stayed home more and time seems to have slowed down. The main problem with the quarantine is that we all miss seeing the people we love. Be prepared my little darlings, when Nana gets her arms around you again she may not let go!
Grandpa’s Letters
Last week I received a message from my cousin telling me she was cleaning out something in a storage bin and she found some letters my grandfather had written to my uncle while he was in the Army. She asked if I would like to read them and of course I said yes.
These letters were written my my mother’s father, or Grandpa Layne, as we called him. He died when I was a freshman or sophomore in college. He hadn’t been in good health for a long time and looking back I know he suffered from severe depression, but when I was a child all I knew was that he smoked a lot, always wore a hat and drank coke out of a bottle (never a can).
Reading his letters allowed me to see him in a different light. Mainly he talked about the weather (40 some inches of snow in March….that alone is all the proof I need of global warming. We haven’t had more than 2 or 3 inches of snow in a whole winter for years). He talked about the farm and someone who worked for him who he thought stole his chain saw. He mentioned me in one letter and said, “Teresa is sick again.” I was about 4 years old when he was writing these letters. I assume it was just normal childhood sicknesses. Of course, I do remember having measles, mumps and chicken pox They were all wiped out with vaccines and that’s what I’m praying for with Covid-19.
Grandpa’s letters reminded me of what a hard life he and grandma had. Mom left home at 16 and married my dad. My uncles, Bobby and Lowell, both joined the service at the same time. One would come home and the other would make his home out in California. My grandparents were poor but they were self-sufficient and their small white one bathroom farmhouse wasn’t insulated. It was hot in the summers and cold in the winters, but to me it was paradise. I loved going with grandma to collect the eggs at the hen house, to see the baby chicks when they arrived in the spring and to eat the best biscuits and homemade jams and jellies ever made.
My grandparents lived simply. They didn’t have much but they had everything they needed. We live in a different day and time when most people choose “too much” over “enough.” I could clean out two thirds of everything I have in this house and I would still have more than my grandparents did in their life time.
But dear grandchildren, listen to me closely….stuff doesn’t make us happy. We think it will but it doesn’t. It’s the people you love and the attitude that comes from your heart that will be your source of happiness. Choose wisely. Guard your heart closely. Make wise decisions. Listen to your parents. And always, always, do what God would have you do.
Nana loves you and can’t wait to hold you and kiss on you! Even if I have to kiss through a mask!
Hope to see you soon,
Nana
