Dear Reader Column 02-19-10

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Dear Reader,

Last month Bailey, my 13-year-old granddaughter, sent an email saying she was going to be studying letter writing in English class--and she was excited about it. "Grandma, I plan on writing you a lot of letters." (I sighed a sigh of relief.) I figured these days, instead of letter writing, English teachers would be teaching sentence structure for one finger text typing.

So of course this grandmother jumped on the Internet and with one-click ordering, sent four different styles of stationary to Bailey. (Yes, I realize the irony in that response.) And I even included a book of stamps in her Valentine card. Yesterday, Bailey's first letter arrived in the mail.

Emails from my grandchildren are nice, but for most people, including myself, typing an email doesn't invite the sort of leisurely "tell-a-story" conversation, that handwriting a letter does. Reading that girl's letter was the delight of my day. I learned so much about my granddaughter. She's made a decision not to be one of the popular girls in her school. The type of girl who's "overly concerned about her tan fading, and so that's her main topic of conversation." My granddaughter said she loves to write, (ah, that's my girl!) and she also recognizes students who cause drama in the classroom. Describing in detail some of the things that go on in her classes. Now I've seen Bailey in action, and she can be a 13-year-old drama queen with the rest of them. But thankfully she seems to realize that the classroom isn't the place for that kind of behavior. And then, four pages later, before my granddaughter signed off, she wrote, "I hope things are going good for you and Grandpa. I can't wait to come visit again this summer."

What a lovely granddaughter. "Out of the mouths of babes, or 13-year-olds...." Such a sweetie. Thank heavens for English class, and English teachers. I think I'll go read Bailey's letter again, and then of course, I'll have the joy of replying.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
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http://www.DearReader.com

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Comments

[Marcia Ledwith]

How wonderful to have such a warm and close relationship with your granddaughter. You need to thank her parents because without their encouragment I'm not sure your relationship would be the same. I have always spent a great deal of time with my grandchildren even though we live in distant states. Unfortunately, out of sight is out of mind, and between visits I rarely hear from them without my initiating the contact..so sad that Mom never encourages them to see how "Gram" is doing, and let Gram know what a great day you had. Coming from a very close family it is a major adjustment for me. So happy for you!!!

[Jean (Houghton)-Beatty]

I love this and hope your grand-daughter continues her letters. It's so hard to get kids to put pen to paper, or any of us for that matter. We have no children of our own but are very close to my brother's grandchildren in England. They email me and I think I'm friends on Facebook to about 2000 of their friends. But one lovely letter like you received would mean so much to me. Thanks for sharing.