Letters

Letters

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is Letters from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Sojourn With Luz Leigh

Letters

Written by Luz Leigh - 09 September 2008

Letters. Have you ever considered how letters have changed over the years? While looking for something in one of my daddy's genealogy binders, I found several old letters.

The oldest in this particular binder was dated Nov. 27/16 with Maynard, Texas, as the place the letter was written. In neat penmanship, the letter began "Dear Sallie." I knew this was the name of my paternal grandmother. The letter was what we students of years past would have termed a friendly letter. It told of the work of someone in the family doing research to prepare a printed history, in book form, of my ancestors. The letter, apparently from a male cousin, was signed "Lovingly, W.T. Hill." I have wondered if the book was ever written.

To me the sweetest letters were written in the year of our Lord 1934 ... the year my daddy was courting my mother. The letters, written by lamp light in the Civilian Conservation Corps work camp where he was the assistant superintendent, carried the same familiar handwriting I learned to recognize as a child. Following his death, I found the letters he had written to Mother years before ... letters she had kept prior to her death ... then without ever telling me about them, he left them with his other important papers. With his doing that, I know Daddy intended for me to read them and understand even more his great love for that dark-haired young woman he married. I think my mother would approve of my sharing a portion of what he wrote to her. "I am trying to catch up with my sleep this week. I go to bed about 7 o'clock and get up at six. Do you think that is enough?" In another letter he told of not feeling well (this was so unlike my daddy ... to admit to not being in perfect health). "I think I got too hot working with my car Sunday. You see, I did not have you to help me. I got in the ditch just this side of town." You must remember this love-struck man was driving over muddy, dirt roads some twenty-plus miles to visit his sweetheart and then driving back to the lonely camp.

Farther in the binder, I found a letter dated August 15, 1952, from the First Baptist Church in our hometown. This letter was written on a typewriter; from the font it looked like the one on which I later learned to type. The pastor was inviting all the members to be present on the last Sunday in August of that year. He stated "We will have a roll call of membership at the eleven o'clock hour and pray you can be there to answer when your name is called." Wow! Was that to prepare us for the time the roll will be called in Heaven and we had better be there to answer when OUR name is called? The letter was signed "Yours in service, H. Ross Spraker, Pastor." Oh, by the way, my daddy and I WERE present on that memorable Sunday morning. If we were living and breathing ... we were present every time the church doors opened.

Not exactly a letter, but a message anyway, are the words penned by my granddaughter last December. On the envelope that held my birthday card, she had written, in her very familiar handwriting, "Happy 70th Mam-Maw. Here's to the perfect fit. Happy Birthday!" The message was referring to a gag gift she had purchased for me. Her mother was mortified, but the granddaughter and I had the best laugh.

Now we are at the present time. My letter today is in the form of an email from a dear friend. It was brief; she was thanking me for agreeing to serve on a committee. She, too, loves to work on genealogy and made reference to a book she and some cousins are preparing on her maternal ancestors. In closing she said, "Our time gets more precious every day, doesn't it? Love you, Sue."

With the advent of emails, the days of receiving a letter on a sheet of paper, through the postal service, which we can hold in our hands, is fast becoming extinct. So, if you happen to receive something through the mail, other than an overdraft notice or an unpaid bill, hold on to it. Someday you might want to share it with your grandchildren.

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