Last night she went on a journey into the past. She had discovered her late mother’s old love letter from 1969.  She felt she was there next her mom, waiting for her to stop writing so she could go to bed. She was in her last year of high school. She slept with her mother in Grandmaman’s bedroom. Since her older sister was now living and working in Montreal, she no longer had to share the furnace…her old bedroom.

She remembers how her mother fell in love so quickly with her first lover after her parents’ separation…and she fell hard too! She recalls how part of her was worried and did not want her mother hurt; she was so fragile. Another part was jealous…well just a little since it had been her mother, her sister and her sister braving the world for so long. She remembers falling under his spell six months later because he was so good to her mother and treated her like a princess. Soon he became a proud father to her as well.

She read another set of letters mailed to her mother…all from her new lover. Such declarations of pure love. It warmed her heart. The last letter was dated April 30, 1969. Was this a coincidence to be reading these later exactly 49 years later to the day?

She wished she had kept her old  letters from her first crush. She was only 13 and he was 17. It was so exciting waiting day after day for the mail to come. She also wrote letters to her best friend who spent the summer at her cottage by the lake. Time moved slower then. You had time to write five, six or ten pages to a friend. Not many could phone even of it was just 20 kilometres  away. In those days long distance bills were very expensive and her mother and grandmother could not afford such luxuries! But still, it was a more romantic time…spending hours by the turntable listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Sitting on the porch
Waiting patiently
Mister Postman

Sitting on the porch
Watching butterflies
Kissing daffodils

Waiting patiently
Cat hides behind the bush
Eyeing his prey

Mister Postman
Carrying a bag of joy
P.S. I Love You

(c) Tournesol’18/04/30