Dear Tracy,<\/p>\n
It’s been twenty-two years since I last saw you,
\nbut I want you to know I think of you often.
\nI’ve tried to nudge events from this side
\nto help you and the family, and I’d like to think I have.
\nYour guardian angels are exhausted, by the way.<\/p>\n
Tell your Mom I love her, and we’re all here,
\nincluding the uncle that named her, my brother
\nthat was listed as missing from Pearl Harbor all those years ago,
\nblown off course in his plane, just as we thought.
\nTell your Dad his parents are very proud of him, too.<\/p>\n
I didn’t think that first marriage of yours would last,
\nand I’m glad I was right. What, I still speak my mind!
\nHe was cruel to you, always bullying and pushing.
\nYou found your spine and your real love.
\nI like this one.<\/p>\n
Tell all three kids I wish I could have known them longer;
\nthey were so little they probably don’t remember me much at all.
\nI love your idea to plant purple Shirley tulips in my remembrance;
\nhave the kids help you when you do.
\nI get to see a whole field of them whenever I want now.<\/p>\n
I see you’re a writer; I told your Mom you could!
\nMaybe if this letter gets to you, you can write about it.
\nDon’t be in a hurry to get here, but don’t fear getting here either.
\nAll my love,
\nGrandma, the former Shirley Erck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Tracy, It’s been twenty-two years since I last saw you, but I want you to know I think of you often. I’ve tried to nudge events from this side to help you and the family, and I’d like to think I have. Your guardian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111393","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\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111393"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123429,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111393\/revisions\/123429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}