My sister found a chest full of letters in the garage of our parents’ house in Reno. She passed them on to me and I have read each and every one. To me it is a gold mine. The chest contains correspondence between my dad, his mom, uncle and step father. There is also an autograph book which belonged to my great grandmother Krysta, containing poems from family and friends, dated 1883!!
The letters date back to 1932, when my dad was 7 years old, a sweet letter to his grandmother thanking her for the birthday cake she baked for him. They are mostly letters from Dad to his mother spanning decades until the early 70’s. They tell stories of my dad’s fierce loyalty to his mom, and his uncertainty of having to move his own small family many times in his ongoing job search. I feel like a time traveler, reliving my family’s past through the eyes of my father. He often ended his letters with a feeling of uncertainty and frustration that he hadn’t yet provided a wonderful home and steady income for his wife and small child. The letters written in the late 50’s and 60’s are of special interest to me because I remember some of the events from my childhood reflections, and it is interesting to see the same events from Dad’s perspective. I want to tell him not to worry. He will eventually find a couple great homes: one in Colorado where we lived in the 60’s, and another in Reno, Nevada, where they would finally settle. He will have a fantastic career as an architect and musician and his two daughters will think the world of him and mourn every day that he is no longer with us. It is fascinating, this time travel stuff. You go backwards in time via memories, reliving the past, already knowing how it will all turn out.
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