Letters Home: Section 1, Letter dated September 8

September 8
Katrina,



This old house has stood through sunny days and through storms, through marriages and through deaths, the walls like eyes watching it all. Father built this house to stand forever, building it with hope that it would last as long or longer than his love for Mother. That must surely be a very long time. The visitors that come here sometimes share with me their own stories of lasting love, but none of them compare with that of Mother and Father.



During some electrical repairs a few decades ago, one side of a central wall within this house was removed, the repairs to the wiring completed, and the side of the wall returned to its original location. The workers found, in the center of the house, a small locked wooden box made of oak with Mother and Father’s names engraved upon it. They brought it to me, feeling it improper to open the box themselves. I opened the clasp here on Father’s desk, and found a treasure chest of memories I had never known living inside.



Time is an amazing concept, Katrina, for nothing is truly forgotten over time but only stored away for safekeeping. The memories contained in the box seemed as lovely and as wonderful as they must have on the day they were placed in the box, a box planted like a seed at the center of the house to serve as its heart, its truest foundation.



The box of oak was closed with a silver clasp and lined with red felt, the color of love. Photographs of Mother and Father's wedding were attached to the inside lid of the box. Inside the box was a necklace of gold, a heart pendant on a chain with the word hope written within the shape of the heart. Beneath the necklace was a note that read, “As hope fills this golden heart, so shall it fill our own hearts and our home.” The box also contained a Bible with Mother’s name inscribed at the top in golden lettering and, placed between pages, an invitation to their wedding and a note saying that this was the Bible used in their ceremony. The box contained letters addressed as though they had been written between Mother and Father prior to their marriage, but I felt it inappropriate of me to read the private thoughts of our parents.



All of the items found in the box were returned to it, accompanied by our infant photographs and a photograph of your wedding that I added before clasping the lid back into place. The box was returned to its original location at the center of this house where it belonged, the location where the box acted as a seed long ago and built around it walls of hope.



Forever,
Christina





This work is fictional. Any resemblance to actual situations or persons, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.






Messages From The Heart, a collection of poems and verses authored by Debra Phillips, is available in print at www.wordclay.com and in downloadable format at www.lulu.com.