Today I got one of those letters that make this time of the year bittersweet. I sent a Christmas card to my cousin Jeanette. I send out only a few now, mostly to dear ones that are elderly and wouldn’t have a clue what to do if you set a computer in front of them. And instead of getting the usual cheery note back it was a letter from her daughter Anne Marie telling me that my sweet little cousin has died.
I remember her only as a child…a dear sunny child. We have corresponded by letters over the years…She the country mouse…me the city mouse. And we enjoyed hearing about each other’s lives…so different, each from the other. I talked about about my photography and travels and she told me how many quarts of green beans, and tomatoes and corn she’d put up that summer and…well you get the idea. Her life was filled with gardening and tending the farm and her church activities and the very large exuberant family that she loved so dearly. Her three kids gave her 12 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren and she was surrounded by them and immersed in their everyday activities and cherished every minute of it. Even more so after her husband died a few years ago.
I loved the glimpse she shared with me of the richness of her life. I’m so distant now from the country life my mother knew so well and she was so in the middle of it.
I’ll miss you Jeanette…my dear little country mouse.