TheBanyanTree: Dear Katelyn

[Sharon Mack]

  I send letters back and forth with my granddaughter who is 5 years old
and lives in Maryland. I got her stationary, labels with my address,
colored pens, and pretty stamps for Christmas so she could write to me
whenever she wanted. Sometimes they are pictures that she draws enhanced
with stickers and glitter. I return letters in which I write of my
'adventures' like going to the butterfly conservatory and fill the pages
with scanned in photos of the adventure. I color the font and make them
pretty. She loves my letters and makes her mother read them to her again
and again. I even decorate the envelopes and print them in the same
colored font as her letters. I bought her a box to keep them in and this
is the poem I will send to her with it. I have decorated the page of the
poem, just like I do the letters.


  Dear Katelyn,

  I will send you a box
  To keep my letters in,
  So that when you are older
  You can look at them and know
  How much you were loved then.

  I will send you a box 
  To keep my letters in,
  So that when you fall in love
  You can look at them and remember
  All the love that went before him.

  I will send you a box
  To keep my letters in,
  So that when you marry
  You can share them with your husband
  And tell him how much you were loved then.

  I will send you a box
  To keep my letters in
  And when your first child comes home
  You can read them aloud once again
  And tell your sweet baby about the love that is in them.

  And as your children grow
  You can give them a box
  And in it they'll keep
  The letters of love
  From you and your mother
  From you and from me
  And they'll pass them along
  To their friends and their lovers
  And share all the stories
  That they have discovered,

  Belonging to you,
  Belonging to me,
  Belonging to God

  And our family.

  Love, Grandma