Monday, January 26, 2009

A Final Thank You

I love thank you cards. Not just any thank you cards, but particularly the fancy, crazy-expensive, glittery thank you cards from Papyrus. Anyone who knows me, knows that with each gift, act of kindness, or just 'cause, you get beautiful cards from me. I think it is important to note, that I collect my cards. Every card sent to me I have saved. That's right, every single one of them. I think I counted once around my senior year and I had around 450+ cards. I don't send or collect these cards for just any reason, I keep them because they are a piece of the sender. They are not an email, they are not an e-Card, they are time taken out of someone's busy schedule to write, or have written, just for them. There is something historic about getting mail and receiving a thank you. Again, it is important to note that if I didn't remember to send a thank you note AND in a timely manner, my mother would hunt me down for poor manners. This one of the only things I still do because my mother told me so.

Nonetheless, while others share their stories of my Grammy, I am having the hardest time wondering if she got my last thank you card in the mail from Christmas. I sent all of my thank you's in a timely manner, but, because of the snow and such, my receivers reported a later-than-usual thank you.  It's silly, I know, to worry about a thank you card, but this is one thing I know Grammy counted on. Whenever I would call her, she would tell me about the last card sent and how she just loved it. It was a connection thing. I'd like to believe that she taught my Mom the thank you card etiquette and my Mom passed it to me. This would be something that I will always have directly from her to me. 

When Mom was at Grammy's last week, she stumbled upon a box with "Taylor's xmas" written in her writing. My mom peeked inside and found a HUGE box of tupperware. I must explain: when Dave and I were getting ready to move in together, I was freaking out because I hadn't found any tupperware that measured up to my mom's Martha Stewart tupperware and I couldn't find a stick of it anywhere. So, Grammy asked me what was on my Christmas list one year and I told her I needed new tupperware, and I think I told her, verbatim, "Not a shitty kind either." Nice way to talk to your Grammy Taylor:( Anyway, she laughed and that Christmas I got 2 pieces of this "Lock and Lock" tupperware. She must have gotten a package deal, because Mom, Annie, and Mrs. Smith got a few as well. On a note inside of my tupperware (she always put the cutest notes in each present like she couldn't wait to tell us what was inside on a post-it....I'll miss those post-its) she wrote that this tupperware was on a "trial" basis, to ensure that they are not "shitty." 

After I sent her the thank you card, we chatted and I told her how NOT-shitty this tupperware is. I LOVE IT! It is the best tupperware and we all fight over who get Sunday dinner leftovers in a Lock and Lock tupperware. She got a serious hoot out of this and she must have ordered more for me...hence the huge box mom found. 

Yesterday, Mom brought over the bag of tupperware and I just unpacked it. 32 PIECES IN ALL!!! I am not kidding. I have every size, shape, accessory known to man in the form of tupperware. I no longer have space for my baking things because I have WAY too much tupperware. 

Thus, this is my final thank you to Grammy....

Grammy,

Thank you so much for the tupperware. You know I love this stuff and it means so much to me that you thought of me. I can't tell you how much I miss you and how every day will go by with you in my thoughts. YOu know I am not a religious or spiritual person, but I feel you, everywhere. Mrs. Smith does too, we all do. Although I will be thinking of you, show me that you are thinking of me sometimes too, I want to know you're with me. The memories of our crazy times flood my dreams and photos. What special times we had together. I love you more than you will ever know. Missing you...

Love You,

Tay

3 comments:

Lori Emmerton said...

I bet you'll keep finding things to thank your Grammy for...keep writing them, and I'll keep reading them outloud to her.

Sheri Nugent said...

We were so surprised to see that big box of t-ware at her house. Isn't that something - a special gift for you - waiting there.

And I swear, I think I saw your Xmas thank you note on her dining room table... opened. We'll check it out this weekend.

Taylor said...

That would be so great if she got it in time! I know I will have things to thank her for, but material things I will not. This was my last thank you for a gift, now my thank you's will be for things I discover along the way!