My Safer at Home (Wisconsin’s version of Shelter In Place) pearls? Strangely they involve travel, romance, betrayal, history, war, peace, financial ruin, friendship and even a Pandemic. All presented in the form of hand-written, ink splattered letters dating back to the early 1900’s, most addressed to my grandmother Florence June Westgate and then to Florence Westgate Kraffert. I found these letters neatly ribbon-bound in packets filling a massive wooden armoire standing sentry in the corner of my grandparents nook-filled attic thirty years ago. I scrambled to save them before my Mother enforced her ‘we can’t keep it, throw it away’ mantra while facing dismantling seventy years of her parent’s life. The box that I shipped to myself then to Atlanta, that followed me to Wisconsin, and then sat unidentified at the top of my shelves in my bedroom closet for decades, spoke to me, once I sat myself down.

The letters are a compilation of correspondence from friends, parents, siblings, and suitors peppered with occasional corresponding entries in daily journal notes and diaries. Narrowing in on letters starting in 1918 and going forward I am experiencing history from a current perspective… World War I, The Spanish Flu, the birth of the roaring 20’s, the depression, World War II…all happening in real time. I am holding one hundred-year-old road maps that show me life does go on. Both on a global basis and a personal, intimate one.

My grandparents became secretly engaged in August of 1921 and immediately were separated by distance. Bennie wrote Flo every day until they reunited in June of 1922. I’m still on December 1921. (And that’s not the only gentleman from whom she received letters!) Later in their life together, they received life’s harshest blow…the loss of their only son, at 19, who died in perfect health, inexplicably in his sleep. Those 1947 condolence letters are both beauty to behold and beauty to absorb…poignant, thoughtful prose etched indelibly on onion skin, parchment or linen paper. Art to be preserved.

It’s overwhelming the depth of details I’m living and weaving together and researching to get more of the story. I have entered another world and quite frankly prefer it to the one I am ‘in shelter’ from now, so struggle with reentry sometimes. It is not by accident or coincidence that I am reading about lives a hundred years ago after they have survived a pandemic.

I am amazed by striking societal similarities. Our need for constant connection is buried deep in our DNA. It just has found a new format. My grandparents looked as intently and eagerly in their ‘inboxes’ as we do ours, and almost as frequently since the post was sometimes delivered twice a day. Their adrenaline rushes were just found in hard copy. I try to imagine the thrill of receiving, in hand, a twelve-page letter from a bestie or lover and that savory moment of finding a quiet corner to connect virtually, just as we do now, although better. Handwriting makes beautiful company.

How timely to tie this collection of pearls to a worthy cause. I love and respect the United States Postal System…and am ever so grateful for their services. And pretty stamps. Write a letter, heck write lots of letters and know that not only are you providing someone today with a physical, comforting presence, you may also be gifting a glimpse of the past to someone unknown to you in the future.

PS. Any type of Parker Pen will make the experience that much more worthwhile!!