This Old Heart: Creating memories to outlive you

Everyone seems to be talking about gift lists. ‘Tis the season, I suppose, though I’ve been working on the perfect present for my five grandchildren for quite a while. They won’t receive it for a few decades — I hope — and they probably won’t appreciate its value for 40 or 50 years from now. I am writing a collection I call “Letters From My Grandma.” Every now and then, when the mood strikes, I put pen to paper — actually, fingertips to the keyboard — and bang out a little message. It could be a memory of a favorite Christmas gift as a child, a funny story about their Mom or Dad or special traits of great-grandparents they never met. I was 6 years old when my maternal grandmother died and 9 when my paternal grandfather passed at age 90. I never knew my other two grandparents. My grandma lived with us so I do have some recollections of her and I can clearly picture her face, her hair and the nylon stockings she wore almost every day. My grandpop was a different story.

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