Mailboxes, Medicine, Memory Miracle

Mailboxes

It’s surprising how deeply childhood memories impact us. I remember when I attended second grade at Shirley Hills Elementary School in Mound, Minnesota. My fondest memory was when our class had a Valentine’s Day party. I don’t remember if we had cupcakes to celebrate the event, but what I do recall were the awesome Valentine’s Day mailboxes we made from shoeboxes we decorated. To be clear, back then in the 1950s, it wasn’t as though children had a plethora of shoe boxes to choose from to cart into school for a decorating contest.

In my case, I had two pairs of shoes: one Sunday best patent leather shoes; one pair for school. I have the feeling my teacher provided some of us with those shoe boxes.

To this day I vividly recall how hard we all worked on decorating those shoe boxes which resembled a mailbox—even showing the flag on the side to show the mailman that we had a handwritten letter to a friend that he needed to pick up. The vibrant colors of pink, red, and white construction are a reminder of the love we poured into making those classroom mailboxes. Our hope, of course, was to receive valentines from classmates we admired the most. As adults, this might seem trivial, but to a kid, this is huge!

Medicine

Jim’s bone marrow transplant took place on his birthday, January 23^rd. We are hopeful that his cancer goes into remission. He will remain in the hospital for seventeen days after his transplant. A huge shoutout to Jim’s nurse who infused our son, Matt’s bone marrow (flown in from Washington DC). Here’s a picture of Jim’s nurse, as well as the actual bone marrow and some blood from Matt. Medicine is a true miracle, isn’t it?

Memory Miracles

As a senior citizen, I have a number of friends with Alzheimer’s. It’s a heartbreak to everyone, their caregivers, in particular. When I wrote my memoir and sent it to one of my mentors, Hazel Bollinger, I knew very well that Hazel was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Imagine my surprise when Hazel’s husband, Norman, shared with me how when Hazel read a certain section of my book about us being counselors at a Bible camp, Hazel’s memories suddenly came to life, and she talked to family members about a conversation we had half a century ago. It’s amazing how her long-term memory became laser focused as I recounted our conversation back in 1967.

As a young woman, I watched the struggle families went through as they tried desperately to balance some semblance of a person life, while juggling healthcare for the person they loved.

That’s probably what inspired me to write a four-book series about a father (Ken Hanson) struggling with the onset of Alzheimer’s. In these books, Ken writes a letter to each of his four daughters, hoping what he’s written will guide them before the disease takes over.

This series (Letters from the Heart) is deeply personal. While my favorite book in the series is My Dearest Chloe (the Amazon folks were too busy to list it as book #4), readers seem to like book #3 (My Dearest Sarah). In this Hallmark-like book, Sarah is newly divorced and enters into a relationship with a veterinarian. I suppose I love this book too, since my husband would have made an amazing animal doctor, given his love of animals. I’m doing a full circle moment now, where everything is about my husband of fifty-two years, Jim. I love this guy to the moon and back. Consider treating yourself to a copy. Purchase here.

As a sidenote, I am beyond grateful to all of you who take the time to read my newsletters and respond. Those ‘thumbs up’ mean the world to me! If all goes well, I plan to release several Western Women’s Fiction novels later this year. Feel free to share this newsletter with friends!

  Gay Ann Kiser