Letter to My Children (January 1, 2022)
It’s another New Year. Ten years ago, the separation of you from us was just beginning. No way to know it would last so long. Last night, while sending and receiving New Year wishes, your continued silence was noted. But, I believe you are very close to putting an end to the shunning of your parents and family. I have a cold, so loaded with hot tea and a corn bag, opened a box of loose pictures from your childhood. Over the years not all pictures made it into the numerous albums. You can thank my mom (your gramma Eileen) for the album making, chronicling her life in pictures. Her mom (my gramma Almeter) chronicled their family genealogy back in the day…when it took letters and a typewriter to find and document additions to the family tree.
I liked photography in high school. My first year (and only) at Villa Maria College in Buffalo NY, bought a Nikon camera! Soooo…over the next days you can expect a slew of old photos. It’s wintertime. I only have inside trim to finish up on the log cabin. Plan to go through all the boxes of photos and share them with you again. You used to enjoy sitting down with your cousins and siblings to look through the albums. I was the same way, growing up, we often played the old home movies mom had taken of us as little ones. Or flipped pages in Mom's albums!
In the photo above is your Grampa Beck, down in the crik, with some of you grandchildren. It’s spring melt, and probably he’s going to the sugar shanty, where family members boil maple syrup. Checking on buckets of sap at the maple trees along the way.
We love you all, miss you. You are our children. It’s a sad commentary on Calvary Temple church and Pastor S. Scott, when they encourage you to stay away from your natural family for any reason. It is not Christlike. Jesus asks us to love one another.
Love and hugs,
Mom
