Hello, Nancy,<\/p>\n
It is such a sweet gift —<\/p>\n
permission to write you this letter.<\/p>\n
God -as wonderful as we thought- gave me special permission<\/p>\n
because something is coming<\/p>\n
I am just to remind you of your reservoirs of love.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Remember in 1977,<\/p>\n
when so many things were happening<\/p>\n
turning you toward less dependent, more deliberate?<\/p>\n
Oh, you didn’t see it that way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The lay off,<\/p>\n
the shut-off of the gas<\/p>\n
and the phone,<\/p>\n
paying the gas bill<\/p>\n
only to find that the gas company could not reconnect<\/p>\n
because there was a leak —<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Those all seemed cruel facts of life,<\/p>\n
but you were aware of the bills<\/p>\n
from that point on.<\/p>\n
Being a busy mom to two toddler boys,<\/p>\n
a preschooler, and an almost first grader<\/p>\n
kept you too dependent<\/p>\n
but you needed to be aware.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That was also the summer when your cousin, Jimmy,<\/p>\n
died from the motorcycle injuries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You were right that God let me visit you<\/p>\n
when the sadness felt too much to bear.<\/p>\n
You knew that lovely scent of White Linen cologne,<\/p>\n
as well as you knew that you were my dearest niece.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We both enjoyed dancing you around the living room<\/p>\n
as your late afternoon fussing turned into giggles of delight.<\/p>\n
As you grew to be a school girl<\/p>\n
you loved getting up early to go to morning Mass<\/p>\n
before I went to work,<\/p>\n
we developed quite a bond.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You enjoyed being so loved — and somewhat spoiled. —<\/p>\n
Losing Jimmy taught you<\/p>\n
appreciate everyone while they are with you.<\/p>\n
Your friends have been encouraged by the attention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Your life has been blessed with a lot of love<\/p>\n
sincere and generous love<\/p>\n
in your parents, siblings, children, aunts<\/p>\n
Do not waste time thinking of regrets.<\/p>\n
God really does give us ALL that we need<\/p>\n
when tough things come along.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That is how it is.<\/p>\n
You will not always have the days or results you expected,<\/p>\n
but you will always have loving care surrounding you.<\/p>\n
God has you ready — and supported in the ways that count.<\/p>\n
With Love from one of your favorites,<\/p>\n
Aunt Leona Callahan<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello, Nancy, It is such a sweet gift — permission to write you this letter. God -as wonderful as we thought- gave me special permission because something is coming I am just to remind you of your reservoirs of love. Remember in 1977, when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1136],"tags":[5121],"class_list":["post-111089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts","tag-letter-from-heaven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111089"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124509,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111089\/revisions\/124509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}