photo credit: sewtracy.blogspot.com |
My friend came from a large Italian/Irish family with six kids. They didn’t have nearly enough nickels to rub and were squeezed into a seriously small flat in Queens, New York. He said life was chaotic in their household.
His
mother was gregarious, the life of every party, and Irish. She laughed, danced and told a great joke.
His
father was soberly reserved and unemotional. A man who gave his son $100, shook
his hand and wished him good luck as he drove himself to college in Milwaukee.
Both
have been gone since long before I even knew him.
He said
one of his sisters recently found a box of old letters. Love letters between his parents.
One
letter stood out as special. Completely unexpected. There wasn’t enough opportunity, he explained, for outward displays of affection amidst the constant comings and goings of his family. It was dated after all six children were born.
The
small block print of this letter told a different story. It detailed the deep love
and desire a soberly stoic man had for his beautifully extroverted wife. Even
then. During the frustration, disorder and confusion they called daily life.
As
he shared more about the letters with me, I saw happiness radiating from him. And
the romantic in me was intoxicated. I am in love with love letters.
His
story immediately got me thinking of how exciting it would be for our children to stumble upon such private
sentiments of love between their father and mother after we are gone. Words documenting our
feelings for each other during decades of marriage. There
are plenty of them.
But
then I remembered there were other
letters out there too.
Letters
that were not between him and me but between me and someone else; someone who once
held a special place in my heart. These letters, I sent to my best friend over
twenty-five years ago asking her to keep them safely tucked away because I wasn’t ready yet to terminate their existence.
What
if they resurfaced someday?
What
if we are, all three of us, gone and they find their way back to our children’s
hands?
What
if? What if? What if?
A
sense of panic washed over me.
That’s
not what I want.
I
want them to unexpectedly discover our love notes when they are parents
themselves. To understand even though we seemed stressed out more often than
not, we were very much in love. Even though we argued (mainly) over parenting
and especially when they were in high school, we loved each other no less. To realize
no love is perfect, but still beautiful nonetheless. Their father and mother
had a romantic love that sustained a half-century or more. To feel intoxicated and
proud in this knowledge.
That’s what I want.
That’s what I want.
I’ve
never asked her if she still has those old letters; if she’s ever
read them (and I wouldn’t care if she had). If she does, I will ask her to shred them so they cease to exist.
I
need to call her.
This
was written for www.yeahwrite.me. Please wander over following this link. You won’t
be disappointed with what you’ll find there!
Love falling in love with the idea of children finding the love letters.
ReplyDeleteOh, Robbie! I was so enthralled with his story. Especially letters written by a man who no one thought had great emotions
DeleteWhat a nice thing to find! We don't write love letters, but maybe we should. Instead we send silly texts.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cute. We text but it's usually more functional texting. We see each other a lot so there is little need for calls or texts.
DeleteI like how this post sort of meanders back and forth in time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shmoo. I'm happy that came across. It was meant that way.
DeleteSo beautiful to have letters like these and you wrote about it so beautifully. Sometimes to find some flaws with ones parents isn't such a bad thing--it would just mean that you loved someone else first, but I understand the panic too, ha. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeletexo Mary Jo
I get that too. There may be some explicitness in them that I might not want them to read. I probably shouldbcheck first. Thanks for the visit, Mary Jo!
DeleteI want to go write a letter to my husband right now!
ReplyDeleteDo it!
DeleteAnd often it's easier to write down what we can't express every day, those feelings that get drowned in the daily grind. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteYou got it. The stuff that gets drown in the daily grind is exactly how to put it!
DeleteThis makes me want to write more letters!
ReplyDeleteYou should. I think I like writing them even better than getting them.
DeleteI too love love letters! Several years ago, our local bookstore had a Valentine's Day event that was focused around the reading of love letters. It was one of the coolest things I've ever been to. The letters ran the gamut (funny, sad, sweet, sexy, longing) - so awesome!
ReplyDeleteKaren
P.S. Don't you want to have one last glance at those old letters of yours before you have your friend destroy them?
That is so awesome Karen!!! Where is this book store?
DeleteP.S. I very much have mixed feelings about doing that.
I think that letter writing is a lost art. It used to be a big deal, waiting at the mailbox for a letter. Now everything is instantaneous and gone in the blink of an eye, never to return.
ReplyDeleteThis was beautiful!
Ought! The sometimes excruciating pain of the waiting. I remember it well, mostly in college! Same as waiting for that phone call (instead of a quick text). Nothing to savor it seems!
DeleteThanks so much, Tina!
How wonderful to find another side to one's parents than the one that was only known during childhood and to see an even more human side to them. Just lovely.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I think, that generation (the one before me) didn't share as much detail about their personal lives as we do now with our children. Maybe that's just me. Of course, not everything like deep seeded feelings and emotions. Thanks, Linda?
DeleteWell first, I loved the way you wrote this, how you got us to the "meat", it was romantic and telling. I love a story of a stoic man that has love, passion, desire in his heart for his sweetheart.
ReplyDeleteI love that the children of that union, even if it was decades later could see that between the parents that raised them...but as for the other letters. Is it okay if I disagree with you shredding them, can we still be friends?
I didn't meet and marry my husband until I was 31 (married at 33) and I lived and LOVED men before him. Men who shaped my life, my heart, who supported and cared about me. Men who loved me and who I LOVED with my whole heart at that time in my life. If my sons knew that , knew about the men before their dad that wouldn't hurt me or them. I was a young woman, I was capable of feeling deep feelings and great desires (and yes even for someone beyond their dad) and I don't want to be ashamed of that or have them hear about it and feel shame for me.
I am teaching my children that the people they love are going to be very lucky indeed just because they cross their paths and were part of their lives for a short (or even a lifetime) of time.
I loved this piece, but Please don't shred those memories, they made it possible for you to be the wife you are today and the friend that I adore.
xox
We can always be friends!!! Kir, those letters mean too much to me. At the time I heard the story, one of my first thoughts was about the "old" letters. I worried about our love legacy.
DeleteWhat I didn't add is that m daughter has met he person who wrote them (Hello, you!) and I did some explaining. She's almost 23. She gets it. Plus she has a boyfriend herself, whom I believe she loves. If he isn't her "forever", he is still par of her personal history. That is truly how I feel about this.
I won't lie. I was panicked for a bit about them. I nned to check with her.
All my mistakes and successes, friendships and loves, contribute to who I am. That makes me happy.
xox right back!
I have a love/hate relationship with the digital age. I'm old enough to miss what once was...
ReplyDeleteThat is a fantastic idea. We all have a past. Makes us who we are.
That is such a sweet story. Love Letters are a lost art we need to bring back!
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteIf my children came across love letters to or from someone other than their mother I would hope it would be at an age where they understood that I loved and lived and lost and that is ok.
ReplyDeleteLike Kir said, it helped make me who I am. Certain letters are probably best left unfound because they don't need to see the details of some things, but I am cool with them knowing I had a very full life.
At least one has that sor of detail. That one probably. The few others are from a very good, romantic letter writer. My kids strongly suspect a very full life from mommy dearest!
DeleteI love this! Our daughter recently found a silly card of two children sharing one umbrella (caption You hold the umbrella, I hold you) I gave my husband on our 3rd date. I hadn't even known he kept it!
ReplyDeleteTHAT IS FANTASTIC!!!! I love it! See, that's exactly what should happen.
DeleteAfter being in relationship with Paul for seven years, he broke up with me, I did everything possible to bring him back but all was in vain, I wanted him back so much because of the love I have for him, I begged him with everything, I made promises but he refused. I explained my problem to someone online and she suggested that I should contact a spell caster that could help me cast a spell to bring him back but I am the type that don't believed in spell, I had no choice than to try it, I meant a spell caster called Dr. Cuba and I emailed him, and he told me there was no problem that everything will be okay before three days, that my ex will return to me before three days, he cast the spell and surprisingly in the second day, it was around 4pm. My ex called me, I was so surprised, I answered the call and all he said was that he was so sorry for everything that happened, that he wanted me to return to him, that he loves me so much. I was so happy and went to him, that was how we started living together happily again. Since then, I have made promise that anybody I know that have a relationship problem, I would be of help to such person by referring him or her to the only real and powerful spell caster who helped me with my own problem and who is different from all the fake ones out there. Anybody could need the help of the spell caster, his email: drcubatemple@gmail.com you can email him if you need his assistance in your relationship or anything. CAN NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT YOU SIR. CONTACT HIM NOW FOR SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS.
ReplyDelete