Sometimes I like to torture myself and go through old emails from my Dad just to feel like we’re talking again. It’s actually usually something I do when I’m in a good place with my grief, believe it or not. It’s usually a joyful thing, where I’m just missing him and can look back on memories with smiles instead of sadness.
I found this one last week and it cracked me up. My Dad took us with some other family on a cross-country camping trip for a whole month the summer I turned 14. Our first stop was the Corn Palace which – to a 14-year old (and probably to most people) – IS THE MOST BORING PLACE IN THE WORLD. And I remember thinking, Great. This is what we have to look forward to for an entire month? Of course the trip went uphill from there, most places were amazing, but it’s been a long time joke about the boringness of the Corn Palace in our family.
So that email made me smile. I actually remember hearing the story and remember needing to tell Dad about it. I wouldn’t have remembered that without the email because it wasn’t anything exciting. But it was a nice treat.
My point? Email your kids sometimes. He and I didn’t email much, most of the emails look like this one, one of us sending something random or a quick update to the other. I wish we had written more. But they’re still a nice treat to have when I’m missing him.
I have a note from my dad (whose handwriting and spelling made letters a challenge for everyone). All it says is, “I wish I could write so that you could read it.”
It crushes me.
Haha I chuckled out loud at your dad’s comment!