Monday, July 12, 2004

Memories From a Kitchen Window

Last night I was going through some things getting ready for our company this next weekend (my cousin, from Virginia, and his wife and sister are coming Saturday evening for supper at our house along with a few other family members), and I ran across a letter from a distant cousin that I met a few years back when I was working so much on the genealogy of my mom's side of the family. This lady is my mom's first or second cousin, I can't remember which. She has such a nice way of writing and such an eloquent flow of words. At the beginning of this particular letter, she had just moved from her home of 33 years in Cleveland, TN to Florence, SC. Eddie and I went to visit her last year on our way back home from Myrtle Beach. In the letter, she is talking about how she will miss her home in Cleveland. Without further ado, I'll just type it below. It says it all so much better than I ever could.

On 23 June 2001 a small caravan left Cleveland, Tennessee, bound for the Palmetto State! Although it was a sad departure, it holds fond memories especially the vistas from my kitchen sink: exotic birds feasting at the bird feeder; a golden eagle perched in a pine tree; squirrels scurrying with hickory nuts to store for winter; rabbits hopping to and fro; mockingbirds on the deck railing trilling their symphonic imitations; sweetgum balls glistening like diamonds at early dawn; and hoary frosts which changed my backyard into a winter wonderland!

I just love her writing and the flow of words that she uses to describe the wonderful scenery just outside her kitchen window. I would love to be able to write like that. I wrote a letter to her last night and told her that she should either write a fiction book (she's already written a nonfiction one) or some poetry because if I had her gift of words I would definitely try it.

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