Letter to Grandchildren

February 12, 2010

Dear Dan:

We miss many opportunities during our lives. Living eleven hundred miles from you during the last twelve years resulted in my missing the opportunity to be with you during your formative years. Not that we haven’t kept in touch or that your Dad hasn’t, during every conversation, told me about you. He is very proud of you, your values, of the person who you have become.

Eventually I will die; no getting around it; I will die. Every living thing eventually dies. I am not afraid of death. I am, however, afraid of being forgotten; of not being remembered.

I was never one for collecting things. I do not have many items which are exclusively mine. I never liked jewelry. I wear a watch because I want to know what the time is and I wear a wedding band because Grandma wants me to wear a wedding band.

A half century ago, every Sunday afternoon, Grandma and I would pack the children in the car and we would drive to places about two hours from Baltimore; usually historical places like Gettysburg, Frederick and Antietam. Occasionally we would drive to York, Pennsylvania and shop in the outlets. On one such Sunday afternoon we discovered the Paltzgraff Outlet. Paltzgraff was a Penn Dutch manufacturer of dinnerware. I found a coffee mug there and used that coffee mug almost every morning for fifty years.

Some day I hope that you will show that coffee mug to your children and grandchildren and say,  “This coffee mug belonged to my Zaide, my Grandfather. He was your great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. He drank coffee from it almost every morning. Let me tell you about him.”

Love and hugs and kisses,

ZZZZZZZZZ