KARL WALLACE
… I was always Karlie Kin’s to GRANDMA JONES
March 23, 2011
Dear Grandma Jones, where ever you are,
The first time I met you, you made dinner for the boys, Pappy, Barbara and me. Always the matriarch in the family.You were a private duty nurse, happy, loving, the most giving person I had ever met. At the time Barbara and I had a two bedroom apartment on Ashland Ave. The apartment was cheap $26.00 a month unfurnished. The toilet was a pull chain, the water heater was manual. There was a dark cockroach-infested cellar walkway you had to go through to get to the long flight of rickety back stairs.
On Sundays we would drive over to your apartment in Oak Park in the ’47 blue Studebaker for a wonderful homemade dinner, demonstration on violin varnish and its history. Just for me. I always heard an ear full of loud naughty words between Mel, and Ed, in vulgar threatening tones mixed in with Pappy’s violin tuning. and lively language for a country boy like me from Ogden Utah. Happy memories.
When I came to visit you in Denver for your sister Helens 80th birthday you let me have my pick of your collection of rocks you had painted.
The last time I saw you were in the nursing home. You were loved by everyone who came to visit or care for you. Mark helped you get prepared and into a wheel chair and out into the court yard when we went for a stroll
The beautiful brown-white rock owl you painted on a rock I use as a book mark holder standing next to pictures of Mark and Brian. All three are looking at me as the day ends and the lights turn off.
Thanks for the owl you gave with love, where ever you are, and l want to be with you on Judgment day
Karly Kins
To read more letters by Karl Wallace go to: Karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
