the letter

sometime before he died (as no date is listed), my grampa wrote me a letter. grama found it in one of his chests of drawers. here is how it began with the exceptions of his spelling and grammatical errors; i think he would have gotten a kick out of my perfection for grammar and punctuation, as nerdy as it is!

"elise,
i want you to be happy. you are a beautiful gal. you're intelligent, and you have a strong, religious base. i pray that you just enjoy your next step. remember to love your family. you are so special, my dear."

i think i will type up this part of the letter, frame it, and hang it by my bathroom window so i can read it every morning. i have read it over and over in the past couple hours since i received it, and each time i read it, i feel as if grampa is present in the room and hugging me. i can still detect a slight whiff of his scent on the letter and envelope. i am not entirely sure it really is there, yet i smell it.

though the letter was short, it was comforting; even solely seeing his penmanship without reading the letter made me smile. the majority of the letter was personal, but grampa did leave me one last piece of advice.

"anger is like a cancer, it can change a person's presence. it is better to accept what has happened. forgive and overlook; you will live a better life. remember to pray for strength." -grampa

i wish heaven had an address so i could write a response letter. i know he can hear my thoughts and read my letters--probably not this blog, though, because he had not quite figured out the computer!

better yet, i simply wish he was still here...

the letter in the envelope