GenChat-L Archives

From: Marie Driskell <>
Subject: [GenChat-L] Letters
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 17:50:17 -0600

My sweet Mother passed away in January of 1994, being
preceded in death by by dear Dad. My husband and I made the
2,500 mile trip to their home in Florida and spent 10 days taking
care of arrangements and emptying the home because I put it on
the market.
I found an old shoe box, turned brown with age and wrapped
with a pink ribbon that was almost brittle. Under the ribbon was
a note addressed by my Mom to me. It said, "Marie, when you
get back home to Utah find a time when you can sit without being
disturbed and read the letters in this box. They are letters that
your Dad and I wrote to each other in 1939 when we were court-
ing [they married in March of 1940]. I want you to know your
Dad as he was when we met and fell in love with each other."
It took me three months to decide to open that package which
Mom had kept for 55 years. I settled back with a box of Kleenex
and spent the next five hours reading those wonderful letters. I
grew to know my Dad as a young and romantic man who wrote
poetry to his sweetheart, who expressed his love for her in terms
of endearment which I had never heard from his lips when he
spoke to Mom. He was a very private man and for the 48 years
of my life that he was alive I thought he was a cool person,
because he never openly expressed his affection for Mom. I
now know that this was a product of how he was reared and
the times in which he grew up. I feel privileged and honored that
my Mom left those letters for me to read and it is not an experience
which I would have missed for all the world.
I am aware, however, that my Mom meant for me to read those
letters and had she not put that note on top of that wonderful old
box I think I would have looked inside, seen what they were and
destroyed them without reading them. I am grateful that I did not
have to do that, however, because in those letters were some clues
to a family mystery having to do with my Dad's ancestors and the
clues have helped me make some inroads into that side of the
family. I will add that some of what they wrote to each other was
in shorthand. They each had taken it in college to be able to take
notes more quickly. I know three people who can read shorthand
but I did not ask any of them to read that part to me because if Mom
and Dad had written it so only they could read it then it was not
meant for my eyes to know what it said. That part was VERY
personal or they would not have used shorthand.
I respected and honored my parents and whatever happens with
letters you find, think in terms of what they would have wanted if
they are already departed when you find them. If they are alive,
abide by their wishes.
Marie Driskell
Moab, Uta

This thread:

• [GenChat-L] Letters by Marie Driskell <>