The Island Letters

The Island Letters

March 12, 2004

Dear Grand,

Mom says I should write to you and tell you all about our new home. I really wish you’d get a computer, Grand. It is easier to send email. I know you could figure it out!! Mom says you say you have an analog mind in a digital world. I had to look ‘analog’ up in the dictionary. Analog is why I had so much trouble learning to tell time. I am so glad you sent me a digital watch for my birthday!!!!

Our new house is on a lake! It has a dock, but we don’t have a boat. I like fishing from the dock and I catch lots of sunnys for the cats! We live in a real log cabin! It has a huge fireplace in the living room. My new bed has a roof! Well, it is really called a canopy. I had to look that word up too! Guess it is a good thing you also sent me a dictionary for my birthday. It is easier to use than Mom’s big one.

I have my very own bathroom now too! I don’t have to share it with my brother anymore. I really like that! My bath tub is a really old-fashioned one! It has feet!
But Grand, the best thing about the new house is that there is an island in the lake. It isn’t a very big island, but perfect for me. I asked dad if we could go out to it, but he said he didn’t think so since we don’t have a boat and I don’t know how to swim. What’s the point of having our very own lake if we can’t get to the island in it?

Love,
Kira


March 21, 2004

Dear Kira,

I’m glad you liked your birthday gifts. Turning eight is one of those important birthdays, you know! My grandmother gave me a dictionary on my eighth birthday! I’m glad you look up new words. It will be a good habit to develop!

Your new home sounds beautiful! Perhaps you could send me some pictures of it in your next letter. I wish I could come visit you and see it for myself, but that really isn’t possible just now.

Today is the first day of Spring. I bet everything there is turning green. Are there daffodils? Will there be lilacs?

I was really interested in your island. When I was your age, I lived on a lake too!! We had two islands in ours: A big island with a lodge on it, and a little one nearer our house. I remember really wanting to get out to the island. I used to make up stories about ‘my island’ (as I called it) and I couldn’t wait until I could get out to it either.

Maybe Dad will teach you how to swim this summer.

Love, Grand



April 15, 2004

Dear Grand,

We do have daffodils! Lots and lots of daffodils. Mom said to tell you it looks like the daffodils in Doctor Zhivago. (Mom told me how to spell that one. It isn’t in my dictionary) She also said we will have lilacs, but not for another month or so. Seems like a long time to wait for a flower.

I got my report card today! Almost all A’s!!!! Stupid math. I only got a C in that. Miss Hempleman, my teacher, said that my vocabulary is the best in the class, but that I had to work harder at math. I just don’t like the gozintas.

I saw Canada geese on my island this morning! Dad lets me borrow his binoculars so I can see them better. I think they are building a nest.

Mom says today is your birthday. Are you awfully old? Mom wouldn’t tell me.

Love,
Kira



May 1, 2004

Dear Kira,

Thank you for the May Basket. Your timing was perfect! Today is May Day. When I was little we used have a May Pole. My father would have crepe paper streamers attached to the top of the flag pole and my friends and I would dance in circles around it, weaving the streamers together. I am so glad your mom taught you about making May Baskets!


What are ‘gozintas?’ With all the new math and learning things sooner than we did when I was little, I have no idea! The rest of your report card sounds wonderful, and I know you worked hard for those grades. I am very proud of you!

Are the lilacs blooming yet? There aren’t lilacs in southern Florida, and I miss them.

I’m still waiting for some pictures. I wasn’t sure if you have a camera so I am sending you one! I really want to see your island.

I’m not awfully old, I don’t expect. I am probably older than the grandparents of your friends because I had your mom when I thought I was through having children. She was an unexpected and yet wonderful surprise.

Love,
Grand




July 22, 2004

Dear Grand,

I am sorry that I haven’t written you for so long, but I’ve been awfully busy. The lilacs bloomed and they were very pretty. We had white ones and pink ones and deep purple ones as well as lilac ones.

I will be in 4th grade next year. Oh! gozIntas are division…you know, 5 gozinta 25 how many times? (5)

Now for the best news of all!!!!! I can swim!!!!! We jump off the dock and the water is just over my head there. My feet touch the bottom when I jump. I like making big splashes when I jump in! I asked Dad if now I could swim to the island. He says I can’t because it is too far for me to swim. Guess I need to practice a lot so I can swim there. I wish we had a boat.

The geese had 7 babies. They follow the Momma and Poppa Goose every where. They even come up to the house now and I give them dead bread. Dad doesn’t like them on the lawn. He says they aren’t yard trained! He’s so funny. He also said that since their nest is on my island, that there would just be bigger messes there. I don’t care. I want to get to my island! Maybe I can swim there soon.

Love,
Kira

Ps Hope you like the pics. Still wish you’d get a computer!

August 19, 2004

Dear Kira,

Thank you for the lovely pictures! It looked like you and your brother were having fun swimming. Your canopy bed is very pretty. But your island---

What a wonderful island and it reminds me so strongly of my island!

How is the swimming coming along? I remember trying to swim to my island. My arms got tired. It seemed like no matter how far I swam that my island never got any closer. It is an awful long way to swim.

I’m sending you a copy of one of my favorite books from when I was a child. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Love,
Grand


September 9, 2004

Dear Grand,

I’m most of the way through “Tom Sawyer” and I really like it. I haven’t finished it yet because of school starting and my project. I am building a raft! My brother is helping me and so is Dad, but he mostly stands around shaking his head and calling the raft naughty names. I sure hope it floats. I found long sticks and old pieces of board. I am tying it together with rope and twine and a green vine I found in the woods (so I use vine like Tom did!)

Next weekend we will try it out. Oh Grand, thank you for such a wonderful idea!!!!

School is fun and I have a really nice teacher named Miss Webster. She makes us look up words in her dictionary all the time. I brought mine to school and she said I could use mine instead. I have a new best friend. Her name is Amy. She has a dog and a cat and A HORSE!

I have homework to do. Write soon,

Love,
Kira


September 16, 2004

Dear Kira,

As you know, I talked to Mom over the weekend. I simply couldn’t wait to find out about your raft and if you got to your island. I was so upset to hear you were covered in poison ivy!!!!! Perhaps next time you should ask your Dad before picking out a vine!!!! I’m sorry you’ve been feeling so terrible too. Poison ivy really itches and then to be allergic to it as well!!!!

I sure hope you feel better soon sweetie.

Love,
Grand

October 23

Dear Grand,

Well, at last that old poison ivy is gone and I am back in school. Luckily, Miss Webster sent work home from school to me so I didn’t get too far behind.

I’m going to be Tom Sawyer for Halloween! I’ve got raggedy old pants and a straw hat. Dad lent me a corncob pipe he had and said he’d tan me a new hide if I tried smoking anything in it! Ick!!! Still don’t understand why Tom would even want to unless it was because he thought it would make him seem grown up! Even then--eeeeeuueuuuwww
Oh Grand-- Dad wanted me to paint the porch. It was fun for a while, but then I got my brother and his friends to finish it. Tom was pretty smart!

Now the bad news. I think I made it about 10 feet past the end of the dock when my raft fell apart! Amy and I both got soaked! The water is REALLY COLD now too! Maybe next year.

The geese are flying away now. The baby geese are teenagers I guess because they look just like Momma and Poppa Goose only smaller. They are still funny to watch when they land on the water. They water-ski or simply stop flapping their wings and plop into the water with a splash!

Are you coming for Thanksgiving?

Love,
Kira




Thanksgiving Day

Dear Grand,

Mom said you are still in the hospital and to tell you all about our day. I’m sorry you are sick, Grand. I don’t like being sick and having to lie around in bed when there is so much fun stuff to do. I hope you feel better soon.

Mom cooked the BIGGEST turkey I’ve ever seen. I cut the cranberry sauce into shapes with a cookie cutter. Mom and I made cookies AND I baked my very first APPLE PIE!!!! (It only got a little burned on the edges.) Gramma and Grampa were here and Great Aunt Emily and Uncle Harry and Aunt Jen and their twins.
We had to use two tables! My brother and the twins played together but they wouldn’t let me play too. They said I was too little. BOYS!!!

I wish you could have been here, Grand. I want you to see my island. Please feel better soon and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,
Kira

December 20, 2004
Dear Kira,

A nice aide at the nursing home is writing this for me. I am doing better, but I have to stay here for a while until I can be on my own again. I can see woods outside my window and this morning I saw a buck come out of the trees. He was beautiful.

I sent your mother some money to get you what I would have gotten you for Christmas. First I could not get to see you for Thanksgiving, and now it appears I cannot come for Christmas either. But I will get better and I will come and see you and your island. To do that will be MY island. You see, Kira, it took me almost four years to be able to get out to the island in my lake. Some wise man once said that if you focus on a dream, it will become real. I focused on that small piece of land as a child and, eventually, I made it there. Since that time, when there’s been something I really wanted to do, I always referred to it as ‘getting to my island.’

We will get to each of our islands.

Love,
Grand


December 25, 2004

Dear Grand,

It was so nice to talk to you today. I know I already thanked you for my shiny new ice skates, but I want to thank you again. I absolutely LOVE them!!! Now all we need is ice. OH!! GRAND!!! Maybe I’ll be able to ice-skate to the island!!! Well, if I learn to ice-skate, that is. On TV they always make it look easy. Or I could walk there once the ice is frozen! Oh I can’t wait!!

Keep getting better so you can get out of that nursing home. Mom said you might be coming here when you get out. Dad would go get you. You could have my room. It is nice sleeping under a canopy.

Love,
Kira

Ps I’ll send you another letter next year!



January 1, 2005

Dear Grand,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The lake is beginning to freeze farther out. Dad says it still isn’t safe to walk on yet. It has been really cold here. Lots of birds come to our birdfeeder. We had a snowstorm last night. I hoped all that snow falling in the lake would make it freeze. But the water is still moving and looks dark grey and not all blue and pretty as it does in the summer.

Amy came over this afternoon and we built a snowman. He’s really big and has a carrot for a nose. He’s wearing last year’s scarf and was holding a shovel. Mom asked Dad if he thought the snowman would shovel the walkway. After that, we had to use a broom for him.

Did you watch the Rose Parade on TV today? There was an island float in it! It didn’t look like my island. It had palm trees and dolphins. It looked awake and alive. My island looks like it is sleeping cuddled under a snow blanket.

Love,
Kira


January 7, 2005

Dear Kira,

Sweetheart, this is very important. DO NOT try to cross the ice to the island unless your father is with you!!!!! I tried that when I was little. The ice was frozen near shore where we skated. (Yes, your old Grand used to ice skate!) It looked like it was frozen all across the lake. Kira, there are currents in the water in every lake. Because of the currents, the ice there is not as thick.

When I was little, I thought I’d walk across the ice and finally get to my island. Halfway there the ice broke and I was in the water. My snowsuit was very heavy when it was wet and I kept going under. I couldn’t get out. The water was so very cold and I was too. I was lucky because my dad saw me go through the ice. He ran out with a ladder and pushed it across the broken ice so I could grab on and be pulled out. I was so cold. My fingers were almost too cold to hold on. I finally got my arm around a rung of the ladder and Daddy pulled me out. I got awfully sick after that. I ended up with pneumonia. (Look it up) I had to stay in bed for weeks after getting out of the hospital. It was spring before I felt better.

Promise me, Kira.

Love,
Grand


February 28, 2005

Dear Grand,

I promise. I have only been on the ice near shore! Daddy tried to teach me to ice skate. I keep falling down. It is very hard to skate. Did you notice my writing looks funny? I am writing with my other hand. My left hand is in a purple cast! It didn’t get out of the way the last time I fell! I broke both bones in my arm. I get to wear it until the beginning of April. My friends all wrote their names on it. Now that it doesn’t hurt anymore, it is kind of cool!

Love,
Kira



March 7, 2005

Happy Birthday darling Kira. Today you are nine years old. I am finally home from the nursing home and able to sleep in my own bed. I will be coming to visit you in about a month. See? My island is getting closer. I should be there soon after you get your cast off. I will have a surprise for you then. If a delivery comes in a big box, please wait until I get there to open it!

I love you, Kira,
Grand


April 13, 2005


Dear Grand,

Mom says you are in that nursing home again and won’t be able to visit yet. She said I could open the box.

Grand, you are the bestest grandmother in the world! In the universe! A little me-sized rowboat! Thank you sooooooo much. Dad says I can try to go out to the island when it gets a little warmer. I wear a pink life jacket when ever I’m in my boat. And I have to practice close to shore until I get the hang of rowing. Today all I did was go in circles! Dad is getting me some paint. He says every boat needs to have a name. I am going to name my little boat “The Island!” Pretty cool, huh?

I love you, GRAND…you are the grandest grand ever!
Kira
ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAND!



May 9, 2005


Dear Grand,

I am writing this while sitting on a rock ON MY ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s a great climbing tree and a big rock to climb on. I found the nest from the geese last year and a huge bull frog. I also found my kite that I lost last summer when the string broke. It flew to my island and waited for me! It isn’t even broken! Isn’t that cool? I rowed all the way out here in my rowboat with dad watching from shore. I have a bell to ring when I am coming back, or if I am in trouble. He said the bell was yours when you were little. It’s a grand-bell.

I made it, Grand. You knew I would. I love you. Mom says you are awfully sick. She told me you might not get better. And that maybe your island would be in heaven. Please get better, Grand. You will get to your island too. I just want it to be here. I will share my island with you, Grand. It will be our island.

Love,
Kira












Thank you to Iammark who is always an inspiration!