I was rummaging through old boxes I have. I kept, apparently, every letter or card I received in HS and a little before. I found a card from my Grandpa T. This card cracked me up. It was sent in 1997, so I would have been turning 16. It was a Little Mermaid card. At the time I remember thinking it was kinda cute that Grandpa got me this card designed for a little girl.


Miciah was watching me go through these boxes, so I didn't spend much time going through them. But I opened this particular card and said, "Miciah, I bet you'd like this." She saw it and loved it! Not only is she obsessed with the Little Mermaid, she also loved the cute rhyme on the inside of the card. She read two lines and said, "It's a poem!" After reading it and loving it she asked if I could make a copy of it so she could have the copy. I told her she could have the actual card. She was so excited! She told me thank you and she's been playing with it, looking at it, and saying the poem to herself for the last hour. She even makes up songs to go with the poem!

What was most interesting to me was looking at the handwriting on the card and envelope. By '97 Grandpa's handwriting was pretty bad. I remember when I would get his cards I would be grateful he took the time to write it out since it was obviously a struggle for him to do so (and sometimes I would wonder how the postmen READ the thing to deliver it!). I remember it would make me angry that he would shake like that. I hated the shake. When he would come to town or we went to his house, I would hold his hand really really tight so that the shaking would stop. I didn't know why his hands would shake, and I didn't know why it made me angry and scared. Looking back, I think it was hard for me to understand that he was getting older and weaker. The shaking was a sign that he was human and hence would pass away one day, and that frightened me.

So Miciah took the cute Little Mermaid card, and I took the envelope and placed it back in the box and looked at that handwriting one last time before I closed the box. Seeing his handwriting still makes my heart break a little. I miss my Grandpa T.

Tamra