“Letters from Mom”
Mom wrote me hundreds of letters and would often send me greeting cards with snipped comics or articles from newspapers or magazines she thought I'd enjoy.
Mom loved tennis. She loved football and basketball and baseball and every other sport, too. But she really loved tennis. When she was trapped at Coastal Rehab I made sure she had a great TV in her room and every time I called I told them to make sure it was showing ESPN or the Tennis Channel. They never did, though, even ignoring the note I taped to it saying not to change the channel unless she asked.
She wrote me this letter shortly after I left for college and I distinctly remember – even decades later – how proud (and jealous) I was of my sister’s artistic skills.
Sept. 5, 1991
Dear David,
Yesterday would have been Daddy and my 19th anniversary. It doesn’t seem even remotely possible that I could have gotten from then and there to here and now. What happened to all that life? All that living? All those individual instances of feeling and being? Weird. I mean, what ties it all together? What on earth makes it real?
Oh, well, maybe the answer is too simple for such as we. Or maybe it’s not there at all. Or maybe it is yet to be discovered. Pay attention in those classes!
Tonight is the Connors-Haarhuis match. I can’t wait, but I don’t know if I can handle it if he loses. (from a fanpoint only, of course) This may be Jimmy’s last chance for a Grand Slam. Or, is there ever a “last chance?” Shit, I’m getting philosophical this morning!
Jenny had to do a time line for school. Actually two, one of all the important events in her life and one of all the important world events during her lifetime. Arcuri said to be creative and, you know Jenny. She made combination collage and cartoons. She drew one of a guy with his hands thrown up and his pants down around his ankles revealing boxer shorts with red hearts on them — Gary Hart withdrawing from the running! For Papa’s death, she drew a tombstone, an angel and a big, very red, very real broken heart. She is so good!
Her books are going to end up costing as much as yours. Argh! It’s already been $216.00 and there’s another $50.00 or so to go! I hope they change that by next year!
I love you lots and lots and lots.
Mom