Thursday, October 14, 2010

Day 115

It has been a long day. Lots of rain this morning. At noon, some people Anne met on her Costa Rican trip with grandchildren joined us for lunch. In between I finished looking through the remaining binders and photographing items for posterity.

The most wonderful find of the day were a series of letters from my grandfather to my grandmother the summer before their marriage in 1928. We knew Gramps as a solid businessman in the steel pipe industry. Maggie was the consummate hostess and community volunteer. In the letters, Gramps shows his passion and love for the woman of his dreams. Maggie must have felt like the most cherished fiancee in the world. The letters were saved in plastic sleeves in a binder. Maggie obviously intended for us to read them after she was gone so we would understand what an extraordinary marriage they had for more than 60 years. She would have never been able to say the words herself.

Other great finds were a newspaper Maggie wrote in elementary school which includes an original story, grocery ads, and a social column. War letters between Maggie and a young woman in the British army corps during WWII were fascinating. Photos of various gg grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles are always wonderful. Below is my GG grandfather Edward Atkinson and his wife Nannie Letcher Atkinson, their living children and all their grandchildren in 1919.

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