Dear Annette,
Tonight is the grand opening of the first completed condominium in Riley School. It is nothing short of spectacular. It will be open as a model and I can’t wait for you to see it when you have the opportunity to come over. After three years of working toward this, it is like a dream seeing it all finally happen.
Municipal elections are this November 8th, so here I am again doing layouts for advertising, brochures, etc. This is my “last hurrah” in this advertising bit – it’s just not much fun anymore – only a headache. A for real case of “burn out.”
I know Mother and Dad want to come over to see Jennifer. They’ve had trouble getting a good day – Dad has lots of meetings and Mother with her therapy sessions. They are going to Hawaii October 1st for ten days so I hope they can make it over before then.
I called the IRS and got an extension on submittal of all the documentation. What a royal pay in the — all this is! They have given me until Oct. 18 to send it all.
People are still remarking on how pretty Jenny is – even though none of her pictures reflect her true “baby doll” features. I hope you and she are by now getting some semblance of a normal night’s rest. And while the rigors of meeting her schedule are great I’m sure that finally getting to dote over the daughter you thought you would never have gives you special joy. While she is God’s gift to us both – she is His special gift to you. I am so very happy for you.
my love to each,
Les
In my experience, losing a parent when you are young causes you to cling to every piece of them that you can, every detail of their life that you can find or someone will offer, the good and the bad because it takes both to know a person.
Over the years, we have been given things that were in storage – one of those things was a drawing of the old Greenfield High School, also known as Riley Elementary School. I knew my dad loved historical buildings – it would make sense that he would keep a drawing like this – and I was happy to lay my eyes on something he loved. Then my uncle explained that one of my dad’s real estate projects was converting the old high school into condominiums. In 1985, just as it was nearing completion, it was destroyed in a fire. What a great loss for him, as well as for Greenfield, losing a beautiful building that held so many memories. I took the drawing home and hung it in my living room, wondering if my dad had it hanging somewhere or if he took it down after the fire.
A couple years later, my mom gave me a letter my dad wrote to her in 1983 shortly after I was born. My eyes first skimmed the letter, taking in his handwriting, which has a resemblance to my brother Andrew’s. As I read the first paragraph, the drawing comes to mind as he writes about his project at Riley School. It felt like when you find two puzzle pieces that satisfyingly fit together. So now the drawing and letter live side-by-side as they brought my dad to life, helping me know him a little bit more than I did before.
coming full circle 