Birth announcements in local papers were something very common in the small Midwestern town where I grew up. So were engagements and deaths. I believe they were our way of marking the milestones of our lives, finding a way to matter and before social media, it was the way you could notify your family and friends of your big events.
The Christmas card is from my Grandmother Curry and her daughter, my Aunt Nancy. It was in 1995 and my grandmother was starting to decline. She had moved to Reedsburg to be closer to Aunt Nancy who had the responsibility for her care. Grandma writes: "Kimberly, The days are slipping away --- still have cards to write. On my birthday, Bob and Pam came and took us out to lunch --- enjoyed that. Then group I play cards with called today to come and play bridge but I didn't go. Had a fall in house last night so was sort of lame. Didn't think I broke any bones but I was lucky. Don't know how it happened either --must have caught my shoes on my slacks or something." She signs it 'Grandmother Curry.' I wish I would have appreciated these efforts more when they were occurring. I'm so grateful I still have the cards. They are precious. I think about my grandmother, health failing, falling in the house and hurting herself, yet she still took the time to sit down and write to me, her granddaughter. That's love.
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