Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

When we were up visiting our granddaughter and son-in-law, he told me my daughter had written letters to her daughter for her birthdays, and he had just given her the one of her 13th birthday and she loved it. When I was thinking about it after, I realized that I had suggested this plan to her, and I was so touched she'd taken my advice. As she was dying, a delayed (because of the pandemic) gift of flowers and a gold necklace with a small disk that said "loved" arrived, but my daughter was struggling too much to register the flowers, which we put on the bureau by her bed, or wear the necklace, so I was moved to see my granddaughter wore it every day I was visiting, for a week. It was her way of keeping her mother close to her heart. I wear a neckace that says "we only have now", not every day but when I need it, and my daughter's book editor just sent me a silver necklace with a minature of my daughter's book cover and back of the book, in the purple and gold that echoes the cover of my book written several decades ago. These are tokens of our love and grief. And they help. I want to write letters to my kids and grandkids and follow my own advice. I know how I wished for some missive from my parents when they died, and was so grateful my brother wrote a four page letter to me before he died. It helps comfort the saddened heart.