I will carefully repair and rewrap it with all the original papers and several new layers to help preserve it, so that it can remain the same way that I found it. Patiently awaiting the one that it was originally intended for is where I think it should stay.
Read it and renew yourself. Add to it, but don't take anything away. Then please, do the same as I have done when you have finished, and let it continue to be the gifts of devotion that it was meant to be.
I will replant the flower beds, so that you will know every time you look at their precious blooms, why love and belonging rests here in this home, and will continue to, for as long as it takes, until the receiver of this package can collect what is only truly theirs.
Know that you too, will also carry with you in your heart, this special blessing, forever.
Thank You,
A New Friend
*****
Dear Mom,
August 28th.
It feels strange to be writing you a letter. I haven't done this since I was just a kid, but I had better get used to it because I'll be doing it a lot for the next while, so here goes.
Right this minute, I'm on a train still on my way to basic training camp. The guy sitting next to me is from Chicago Illinois. His name is Martin and he's eighteen just like me. He's got a wife and daughter back home. He's writing to them while I'm writing this to you.
It seems odd to me that he's a husband and father already. I can't imagine what it would be like. I can hardly believe that I finally graduated from Grayson High just a couple of months ago. Martin is real nice Mom. You would like him. I hope we get to bunk in the same dorm together.
My first ride in an airplane was pretty neat. I got a window seat after all. We had chicken on the plane for lunch, and you know how much I hate chicken, but I was so hungry by then that I ate it all anyway. Yuck. New York was very exciting though. There were so many people there.
You wouldn't have believed it. I don't think the people there are as rude as everyone says, but the prices are outrageous.
We had a little time before we had to catch the train, so to make up for the lousy lunch on the airplane, I bought a hamburger in the station. It cost more than the dinner special at Tillie's Diner back home, and it didn't even come with fries. I've only been away from home for a few hours, and I already miss your cooking Mom.