Dear Mum,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
When are you hopping on a plane and coming for a visit? The kids miss you and so do I. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cold Christmas for once? Maybe if you came for Christmas, God would pull one out of his back pocket and provide the Christmas miracle of snow. We would take you to Tanglewood to see the lights, and drive around the wealthy neighborhoods light-peeping. We could sled down the hill in the backyard if it snowed. We could go to the Christmas Eve service at church and go see the Moravian star in Old Salem. You’d love it!! NC zoo is open year round now.
And we could take a trip to Kentucky to visit your brother! There’s an ark up there. I’m not sure how I feel about the ark TBH. I definitely wouldn’t want to go before the presidential election while they are probably trying to persuade voters – as if that has anything whatsoever to do with Noah. I wouldn’t mind seeing it if I didn’t have to listen to any propaganda though.
How is dad? How are my siblings and the rest of your Aussie grandkids? Geez you’re lucky to have so many. Thirteen grandchildren total—is that right? I bet you have had play dates and sleep overs with every single one of them and helped relieve your own kids’ parental stress. It’s only now, since having kids, that I can understand how you parented us. Only now that I realize you were extremely patient and you bit your tongue time and time again in the midst of our antics and outbursts. It’s only now, in realizing how difficult parenting actually is, that I know why you didn’t always understand me. You can’t be me, and you have your own challenges, not just mine to deal with.
That’s what I would say if you were alive for your 62nd birthday. But you have been gone for 13-14years. You can’t come visit me. You don’t know where I live. You were able to visit the US once in your lifetime, but you haven’t met my husband or my in-laws. And you haven’t met my kids. Or my sisters kids. Or some of my two brothers’ kids. We all miss you like crazy, and we all wish you were here because all of us know you would be the most amazing grandma.
You’re a lot like my mother-in-law actually. She’s really good with my kids too. Both of you were teachers. Both Christians. Both had three brothers! Both motherly and nurturing. I wish you could have met!
And it would be interesting to see you enjoy the snow and learn about North American animals. We’ve never been to the snow together, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a bison or a raccoon (up close and personal). Heck, I’ve barely seen any raccoons and I still get a kick out of squirrels – I don’t think of them as rodents.
Can you believe that my little family is in Canada right now, on the anniversary of your birth? I remember you sent me a postcard from Niagara Falls when I was about 8. It was your one trip to USA and Canada for one of your brothers’ weddings. You brought home Disney mugs from Disney land and an activity book. I don’t remember much else of what you brought us, except that postcard. I still have it. And now I’ve been to Niagara Falls twice myself – once in the summer and once in the winter. It’s breathtaking!
But this trip we are visiting three other provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island!! Today (Sept 27th here but Sept 28th in Australia where you were born), we visited the Anne of Green Gables museum and heritage house. It’s actually got more to do with the author Lucy Maud Montgomery than with the character, Anne. The island is obsessed with her (LMM)—where she lived and wrote, the woods and nature that inspired her etc. Did you know her mother died before she turned two? Then her father moved to another part of Canada and she was raised on this island by her grandparents.
It’s a beautiful place. You would have enjoyed seeing it and I think you would have encouraged me to keep writing. Anne of Green Gables was rejected by 5 publishers before LMM finally had it published and continued to write more and more books. You read the first novel I was really proud of before you passed away. You encouraged me so much and thought it was amazing. I’ll never forget that and I’ll never forget you.
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