Letter #93 - Daphne

I was raised to believe that people can in fact stay in your life forever.  Not physically per se, and of course we all die eventually, but I come from a line of really great corresponders, as I've mentioned before.  Daphne is a woman who has been in my life since before I took my first breath.  She's the woman who delivered me.  I've been thinking about her lately, and in the course of this project that normally prompts me to dig out my stationary.

Daphne is much closer friends with my parents, but when she found out I was engaged she wrote me a beautiful letter of congratulations, reflecting on some of her memories of me and my family.  I decided to send her a note to just say hello and let her know she was on my mind.  We share a love of cats, so I told her about our kitties and sent some photos.  I love that I know the woman who delivered me.  I love that I can share my life with her and tell her about the things that are going on with me, and that it's meaningful to her.

I know that Dr. Daphne is pretty good about returning letters so I am hopeful that this letter will result in a letter in my mailbox in a few weeks.  We've had so much junk mail lately it would be really nice to get something personal :o)

Letter #87 - Erin

I've moved.  A lot.  This means I've lived a lot of places, and had a lot of neighbours and a lot of friends.  Erin is the first neighbour that I have any memories of, and also one of my first friends that I can remember.  I turned 4 the week my family moved to Independence Missouri (my birthday has been almost exclusively spent mid-move or at a church camp) and Erin lived across the street.  During our time there we would spend our days playing in each others' yards, creating dance and gymnastics routines in her basement, climbing trees at my house, or coming up with craft projects.  We had countless sleepovers which always involved makeovers and movies and lots and lots of snacks and giggling.  As we grew older and the trips back to Missouri became less and less frequent, we got worse at keeping tabs on each other.  That never seemed to matter when we came face to face though and we would spend what little time we had together trying to catch up on jobs, classes, boys and music... more giggling, more dreaming, and lots of reminiscing.

Last year I got to spend some more time with Erin and I was so excited to learn that she had just gotten engaged.  More giggling and girly stuff as we talked about my upcoming wedding and ideas for hers... more boys... more giggling.  When the invitation to her wedding arrived I was so sad to have to RSVP no.  Between a severe lack of finances, and having my masters class that weekend it just wasn't possible.  I found myself thinking about her all week leading up to her big day, and the day of my mind kept wandering and wondering where she was at that point in the day, and what she was doing, and whether she was married yet... I wished so badly I could have been there.  So instead, I wrote her a long letter.  It got a bit mushy I will admit but come on... one of my earliest childhood friends got married just 9 months (to the day!) after me... I was bound to get sentimental!

Her younger sister is getting married in a month as well, and I unfortunately (for the same reasons) can't attend hers either... but I am hopeful that maybe in a year or so the world will have changed in such a way that maybe our paths can cross again and there will be more movies, more makeovers, and more giggling.

Letter #43 - Rita

My very first "boyfriend" that I can remember was named Bryan.  I met him because of his mom, Rita, who was my Kindermusik teacher when I was four.  I'm sure Bry and I eventually broke each others' hearts and went our separate ways, but we're still in touch every so often and I keep in touch with his other family members as well.  Rita is the member of the family I see the least often and hear from even less frequently.  Over the holidays I was in touch with both of her sons a bit (God bless Facebook) and got to see a bunch of their family Christmas photos, which made me miss Rita.

I have only a few blurry memories from Kindermusik, but I remember just loving it.  It also laid the foundation for my 8 years of piano lessons and my dabbling in guitar.  While I never became an accomplished musician, I love music, and I'm grateful to Rita for sharing her passion with me.  I still have my Kindermusik bag, with my books and my glockenspiel... I can't part with it, and I hope my future children will use it someday.  Since they're daddy will be a musician, I'm sure they'll get looooots of exposure :o)

As I wrote Rita's letter I remembered spending hours in her basement playing music games, hoping Bryan would be able to play after class, watching The Brave Little Toaster... I wonder if I'll hear back from Rita.  It's been years since I think I've had direct contact with her, and I can't say I have any idea what's been going on her life.  I'm hopeful she'll send news back.

Letter #1 - Betty

Since it is clearly not 1 January, I have some catching up to do.  Tonight I only had time to write one letter, but should be able to double up the next few days in order to get caught up.  The first letter I chose to write to kick off my journey was to a dear friend named Betty.  Betty has been in my life since I was about 5 years old.  She is a member of my church and often would watch over my brother and I, or cat sit for us when our family was out of town for a few days.

I used to write to Betty at least once a year... she could at the very least always count on a Christmas card from me.  Then life happened.  My Christmas list grew larger, more overwhelming, my life became more cluttered, less focused on my address book... there's no real reason why Betty slowly dropped off my list of people I keep in touch with.  She still calls my family on occasion to check in and see how life is treating us all, but she isn't much of a writer due to a sever arm issue she's had as long as I've known her.  In fact, I'll be very surprised if I get a response from her, but I know she'll be glad to receive the letter!  I included a few photos for her as well - a wedding photo, our family Christmas photo, and of course a photo of our cats (since she used to take care of the cats we had when we knew her, I figured she'd like to see the newbies!)

As I wrote my letter to Betty (it wasn't overly long, just the inside of a 3x5 notecard) I realised how much of my life she had missed out on because I stopped sending her news... and how much of her life I've missed because I stopped asking.  I hope the letter finds her well, and I look forward to sending more letters this weekend.

I should probably clarify something... (in case I have friends and family reading this blog!) there isn't much rhyme or reason to who I choose to write for this project.  Betty was one of the first names in my address book that I stopped at and thought "my gosh, I haven't heard from her in ages!" some of the others on my list for this weekend (yes, I made a list...) are friends who I send notes to more regularly and was just thinking of them, others are people who may receive my letter and think "Rachel who?"... as this project progresses I'm sure many of the people in my life will receive something or other.  I will not duplicate contacts for this project either (unless it turns out I know fewer people than I think I do!)  In short, if you know me, and you know about this project, and you do NOT receive anything from me this year... please, use it as an opportunity to send ME something!  I am not trying to reject you, or make you feel bad.

Wishing you all much Happiness & Harmony... I'm off to bed!