Ghost

Here’s a short missive mom sent me in the middle of my first semester of college. I loved receiving her letters and was always excited to check my mailbox in the dorm. And I was as incredibly proud of my little sister as she was.

Also note that one day I’ll probably need to explain to my sons what a VCR was and why they were so revolutionary.

10/9/91
Dearest David,

Well, here I am 20 minutes early to work so I have a little time to write a quickie. Like I said, I remember wanting letters – they were even better than phone calls. Oh, well…

I’m really excited about Jenny getting in the National Honor Society. I get so proud of the two of you, I could burst. But I don’t know if I always make it clear that what’s important is not the honors and the awards but who you are. It’s nice to see that others think you two are special. But, like I said before, if you do the best you can most of the time, you’ll be OK. Anyway, back to Jenny. The ceremony is going to be at 2:00 Tuesday, so I guess I have to see about getting some time off and working around it. I just called your dad to let him know since Jenny’s not really good at spreading info.

Homecoming is this weekend and, once again, I haven’t got any definite word about whether your sister is going.

I love the Hitachi VCR. It does everything but program itself. I know it was a major extravagance, but I guess it’s OK once in a while.

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It’s almost 10:00 p.m. — a customer called this morning, and I didn’t get to finish. Anyway, “Ghost” is on and I don’t think it’s that great a movie. I saw it from start to finish last night for the first time (I think I was the only female holdout in the country). Jenny was watching it when I came home from next door. OK, so Patrick Swayze is a good actor and does incredible things for his 50’s. (not that I’m interested, and, just for the record, I’m sure this is the very first time I have ever used “OK” in two pages 3 times!)

I keep wanting to look for a job more aggressively every day, but I’m usually so tired after work. I’ve gained some weight (boo-hoo) which I plan to lose again quickly. Plus, I had a cold before you had your teeth out. I was actually surprised today when I realized I felt OK.

I want to write a story about a repair man. You know, a blue-collar guy who comes to a young, single-parent home to fix some plumbing or something and ends up fixing her life. It’s a little trite, but the average magazine reader loves the knight-in-shining workboots stuff. Then, again, maybe I should start my novel.

I wish you knew how much I love you. I’m going to sleep.

Take care, Give my love to Lanie,
I love you!!!
Mom