When Martha, Nr 3, arrived, she carried two folders of papers that I had written long ago at her request, thinking it might help me remember situations from my past, which would then help me with my blog. I have not had time to read all of it but this attempt at poetry amused me. Hope it will do the same for you. I think I have mentioned the event before. It is written in the form of a letter. It was called Dear Jeffrey, but if I were truthful it would have been called Dear Marcus.
FRANKLY MY DEAR, I DO GIVE A DAMN
Dear Jeffrey
Watching GONE WITH THE WIND last night made me remember.
Remember the night of August 1, 1943, the night before Sam and I were married.
It was Georgia hot. Sticky and hot.
I sat on the floor by the fireplace, a carton filled with papers by my side.
One by one the papers burned. Letters from Sweden.
Letters from young men in the Armed forces. Some with proposals of marriage.
Newspaper clippings and photographs
And then - all my Clark Gable pictures.
As more papers burned, the hotter the room became. I read and agonized.
Should I, or should I not. Burn this or save that.
Should I marry Sam, or should I not.
I cried silently, feeling so alone.
Did I really want to marry Sam?
I hardly knew him. He was infantry bound for unknown destinations.
If I let him go, I might never see him again.
That was the worst of all possible scenarios.
I never regretted marrying Sam
But why did I think I had to burn my past? Who knows?
After watching Clark Gable, I suddenly regretted that nights absurdity.
Had I not burned those papers,
I could now better share my past with our four children and our grandchildren.
And I would still have all your letters.
4 comments:
You never fail to impress with your stories. Never.
I remember reading about your burning those papers when you were writing about Aug 1943 and I was hoping you wouldn't do it. Oh well, "No use crying over spilled milk" as we say. It's a small thing in the big picture. You married Sam, thats the important thing, and now you have wonderful children and grandchildren.
It's nice that your daughter had you write those things and saved them.
And don't worry about that grammar book. we love your writing and we can understand what you mean. Someone will let you know about the small things like cheeper and cheaper. There is a spell check function on your computer that you can get one of the kids to activate for you also and that may relieve your mind some about spelling.
Regards
Keitha
Oh how tantalizing a mystery! I've searched your blog looking for another reference to Marcus and came up empty-handed! However the search took me back to the first entry of your blog (from Shreve on July 29, 2008.)
Dear Ms. Svensto, you've had your one-year "blogiversary" and we, your oh-so-fortunate readers, let it pass by without acknowledgement or celebration. So here's to your first full year of wonderful stories and remembrances....Hip Hip Hooray! (I'm raising a tiny snifter of ice-cold virtual schnapps! ;-)
And here's to Year TWO; we love your writing so.
You never know what will survive if you save lots of stuff. I have the love letters that my grandparents wrote to each other in 1915. My father was a pack rat and kept the stuff. Now he's gone and one of my Aunts is fighting me to let her have some of the letters. My Dad had them in his various garages for over 40 years after his parents passed. I say the letters are my property. I would like to know what you think... and I've offered her copies of everything, but she insists that she has more right to the originals than I do because they were her parents.
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