Molly frequently would write a Christmas newsletter to send to friends and family. In the letter she wrote for 1994 she describes what each child was doing that year, etc. She also wrote some general comments that I think she would like to share this year.
She began the letter with:
"This was supposed to be our Christmas greeting to you but events preceding Christmas changed all that. So I thought a New Year greeting would be appropriate and close enough to Christmas that you would all forgive me for being so late. But, we're well into the new year so I guess Happy Valentine's Day will have to do. Hopefully, this letter will get out to you by then. If not, fill in the blanks to whichever holiday this letter arrives closest to."
The events that delayed this letter center around the death of her grandmother, Sofia, which occurred toward the end of the year.
She describes some of this later in the letter:
"Unfortunately, our year ended with the death of my eighty-eight year old grandma. Her death came as a surprise. For some reason I thought she would live forever. But I guess it was more of what I had hoped. She was the nurturer in my life and the one I spent most of my time with. She was my best friend. If I could have had a choice in the way she died, I would have chosen the way she died. She was strong and healthy until the very end. She lived in the house she loved with those she loved. She had a couple of heart attacks the night before she died where she was surrounded by family in her death and greeted by family she missed. Her place in this life will never be filled. Her absence is very difficult to get used to. I still find myself including her in my plans only to have to re-route my thinking in the process. I'm glad my children got to know her and have her be as big a part of their lives s she was in mine. Grandparents bring a special touch of magic to our lives."
I hesitated to include this paragraph at Christmas and was planning to post it at some other time, but I think that Molly would like it posted now.
Perhaps the feeling that we are are indeed still connected with those who have gone before us is not thought about enough and she would like us to realize this and consider what this means.
Some of Molly's thoughts about her grandmother are certainly the thoughts many of us have about Molly.
Molly ends the letter by directing her thoughts toward those she was sending the letter to:
"In sending this late Christmas letter, I hope to let all of you know how much we appreciate you as friends and family and hope you will forgive me in my lack of correspondence. You have all touched our lives in such special ways and have helped us to grow to a greater depth of knowledge of who we are by adding to our lives. We cherish the memories you have given us. I sincerely hope that 1995 finds us renewing and adding to those memories.
Love from the Robbins Family"
It would be difficult to find a better expression of this aspect of Christmas.
I am sure that Molly would want to express something very much like this if she were still with us in this particular sphere of existence.
Sentencing
12 years ago
