One good outcome of my parents' separation is that my father visits me more often.
He gave me a box of photos and heirlooms for safekeeping, the contents of which have a calming effect on me. There�s something comforting about ancestors. The familiar features in photographs, their inspiring stories, the care that someone took so that future descendants (me) would one day find their dusty memories and know that they existed.
Letters from the past are priceless to me, and very educational, as some of them I have to translate from excessively ornate Spanish cursive. It was much like the feeling of being star-struck when I found a handwritten letter by my great great grandfather to my great grandmother about my newborn Nana. Tattered and stained by the ravages of time, it is one of few written in English, repeated in unedited form below, hence the occasionally awkward language, which I find endearing:
Oaxaca, Mexico
April 1, 1926
My dear Mattie:
With great pleasure I received your kind letter dated January 21, 1926.
I am glad to learn that you are all well and happy. It was a great pleasure to me to receive the photo of my granddaughter, Charlotte. She looks fine indeed. Let us wish that she will be an honor to her father and mother and to all concerned. I am old man, not sour nor bitter, and so I take great interest in children. I like their company; I admire their innocence and sincerity. Love, in its truest and most unaffected manifestation, resides in their little hearts. Thus I think of them.
Yes; it would be fine to have Rudolfo Jr. and Delia Marie visit your house and to show them San Jose and its surroundings which are so beautiful. During vacation time you may do it at leisure.
We all are well. Panchita cares pounds to your greetings.
With my very best wishes for yourself, Lico, and Charlotte, believe me, or ever,
Your affectionate father,
Rodolfo
Beautiful, no? It transports me to another time and place where the stars are the people I came from. To know what they may have been like, I have only to look at myself. If they were half as lovely as they seem, it�s reassuring to know that at this very moment, their blood flows through my veins, and so, they live.
3:31 p.m. - 2008-04-21