Letters To My Mother

She had kept the letters, this mother of mine. Somewhere deep within a closet they had rested throughout the decades, waiting to be rediscovered and distributed. We had all written to Mother. To her we had poured out our woes, our joys, our funnier moments...and sometimes our stupidities. She had read them all, and savored them.

We might not remember what we were like, what they were like, what she was like - without those letters. Mother had gone through several major moves but faithfully kept them all intact, in boxes. I had not thought about these since writing them, so it was a surprise when one day she began giving them back to us, bit by bit.

It was a little scary to begin reading these pieces of my history. Poor mom! I had told her everything - my opinions (high and low), my relationship dilemmas, health problems, and (oh dear) I had asked for endless amounts of MONEY. 

But there was one consistent thing contained within these letters. I loved her. It flowed out, point blank. That is just the kind of person she is, one whom a person cannot help but love. 

I am sure, dear Readers, that many of you have mothers who saved your letters. You have felt what I have felt when reading them - a sort of blast from the past, revealing much of what we were, then. And sometimes the 'reveal' is not terrifically comfortable, is it?

But, rather nicely, the letters did improve with age. And as such the things I wrote in high school and college morphed into something much nicer in my 30's. Something about raising busy children rounds us out. Makes us more sympathetic. And, I noticed this: no more mention of money! 

Now that email and texts and instant messaging have taken over from old fashioned letter-writing, I feel sort of sad. Emails by nature won't probably have our life stories detailed out anymore. HOW WILL ANYONE REMEMBER?

But who knows? Maybe pen and paper will make a comeback one of these days. We could even start it again ourselves, right? There is still a Postal Service, after all. We could drag out the stationary, the envelopes, the writing implements, and the - what is that thingy that we used to stick on the upper right hand corner of an envelope?

Oh, yeah. Stamps, anyone?


See you along the way!
the SconeLady