Letter #13: 7/13/20
Stories of A Lifetime Presents: “The Letters”
Community correspondence sparked from the isolating 2020 pandemic focused on easing the burden of loneliness.
Hello, my name is Holly. I am 40 years old and a single mom of a 9-year old boy named Easton. His father, Brian, passed away from cancer two years ago. I enjoy writing, I love history, and I like being a helpful, involved community member. I keep thinking about my grandma, and if she were alive today how lonely she would be because of this pandemic. I know receiving a letter would turn her day around. It wouldn’t matter if the writing was profound or merely about what I ate for dinner. Knowing someone cared to communicate would bring instant joy. So, my friend, I’d like to write some letters to you. I know they will help me feel useful and less lonely. I hope these letters are helpful to you and that they spark you to reminisce about your own life, love, and good times.
July 13th, 2020
Dear Friend,
I signed my son up for a few weeks of tennis lessons. His first time ever playing tennis will be tonight. He is looking forward to it. So am I! Tennis used to be my favorite sport and it was a huge part of my life growing up. I haven’t touched my racquets in 20 years now. Yikes! The years have seemed long and hard, but looking back it’s merely a blink of an eye and two decades vanished. Do you ever feel that way and wonder where the years went?
I dug out my tennis racquets and the memories of drills and competitions, of lessons learned and fun times came flooding back. The racquets are old but were high quality back in the day. The grips were disintegrating in my hand. I decided it is definitely worth it to fix these racquets up instead of buying new ones. So, off to the old racquet club I went to get them regripped and restrung.
What a blast from the past it was to walk into the racquet club! This was the setting for years upon years of childhood tennis lessons as well as the scene of my first job. I worked the front desk there for maybe two years starting at age 15. The clubhouse area had a minor facelift but basically looked the same as it did in the early 90s. Where was your first job?
My whole family played tennis, and my mom even played on the state league. She is excited that my son is starting lessons. She, too, dug out her old tennis bag that hadn’t been touched in almost 15 years. The staples were still in there- bug spray, hand sanitizer, chalk bag for sweaty hands, and of course some lipstick. My mom and her lipstick! She’d be playing tennis in 90-degree heat and still need to “have her lips on.” Haha! She found one other item in her racquet bag: a button with my freshman year tennis picture on it. Oh my! I look so young in the picture. Looking at it I feel both that it was just yesterday and that it was a different lifetime ago. It definitely makes me sad that I let life get in the way of finding time to continue to play tennis. My mom had me take her racquets to get regripped and restrung also. I look forward to us all getting out on the court together again soon!
Did your family have an activity that you all liked to do together? Did you play a sport in high school? I’d love to hear about it, my friend. The puppies are getting bigger and fluffier. I bet they’ll like it when I bring out the tennis balls. Although tennis balls may be too big for them to latch on to. I will need to find something a bit smaller and start playing fetch with them. We are off to the tennis lesson now!
With love,
Holly
If you’d like to write back to me, you are very welcome to.
I will get a PO Box soon and let you know what that is. For now, maybe someone could help you scan and email your letters back to me at Holly@StoriesofALifetimeLLC.com. Otherwise, maybe you’ll find it helpful to just journal your thoughts and write them down without sending them. You do what is helpful to you, friend.
Conversation Starters:
The years seemed long and hard, but looking back it’s merely a blink of an eye and two decades vanished. Do you ever feel that way and wonder where the years went? Where was your first job? Did your family have an activity that you all liked to do together? Did you play a sport in high school?
