Hi Emma Grace,
Hope you are doing great!❤️ Yes I am in town and enjoying your warm weather. I’m sure you’ve noticed more people and more cars on the road with all the northerners here. Instead of shoveling snow and freezing temperatures they find comfort in this climate. You are so lucky. Do you remember your first snow? It was in Virginia at my house and Auntie Jo got you all bundled up and took you outside in the yard. You were so funny. Your eyes got big as saucers and just stood in the snow not knowing what to do. You were so cute! I’m glad I was around to enjoy those first experiences with you. The innocent joy was beautiful. Your first Christmas tree was with us. You grabbed for the lights that twinkled. Amazing!
Now that you are 15, I’m sure you’ve grown to be a lovely sweet girl. I hope you smile a lot and have good friends. Teenage years can be tough. I remember mine and I’m sure I could be a handful for my parents and they had six other kids to worry about too. My family had a 4 bedroom, 1 bath home high on a hill on the southwest side of Syracuse. My grandmother lived with us until I was in high school when she passed away. She was wonderful and I loved her very much. The Cannon family lived across the street with 7 kids, the Sherlock family lived next door with 7 kids and practically everyone else on Colvin Street had children. One of my best friends in the neighborhood was Linda Shannon and there were 7 kids in her family too. It was fun and my mother always had an extra place at the dinner table for one of our friends. Most families all ate dinner together then. Never in front of the tv like these days. We had one telephone, and when I was really young, we had a party line. That means several families shared the same phone line. So we would pick up the phone to call someone and we could hear someone else’s conversation. We couldn’t use our phone until they were finished. I was tempted to listen in sometimes but it was usually boring!! I never played too many sports because in those days most of the sports were for boys. I was a cheerleader in high school and since I was flexible, I could really jump high. I took tap and ballet lessons and loved to dance but I stopped taking those when I got older. Four of us girls performed for the elementary school one time. We were called the Twinkletoes! Being in the Girl Scouts was big in those days of the 1950’s so I was a Brownie first and then I was Girl Scout. We had so much fun and I learned a lot. I grew up quite a bit during those years. I was grounded in my faith, I chose good friends to hang around with but I was friendly to all. We had nuns as teachers in school so you didn’t cross them. I never got into too much trouble but I have to say, trouble back in the 50’s and 60’s is different than today. We didn’t have the temptation of drugs, alcohol and smoking was only kids that were troublemakers. We couldn’t talk back to teachers, parents or anyone. If we did, we were sent to our room or worse. We had consequences for our actions. I still marvel now at the strength and love that my parents had for us with their spiritual guidance, patience and mutual respect. I hope your mother and her boyfriend treat you with the respect you deserve. It must have been hard for you to lose your daddy so young. You were seven. I don’t know how you felt but I did know what it was like to lose a son, my child, so young. And then to lose you when your mother took you away from us was almost unbearable. Keeping you isolated from us and all your old friends must have been so confusing for you. We probably have some of the same feelings about those days. I hope your mother was kind and understanding of your sorrow and explained things to you. Things you didn’t understand. And I hope she told you the truth. Someday you will come back to us and we will tell you the truth about everything . We miss you and love you enormously . Hugs and kisses, Grammie
