I didn’t expect this day to be as it was.

My most recent photo challenge from WordPress is “letters” and although I believe most people will interpret that to be images of words or perhaps fonts, alphabets, or random letters scrawled in unusual places, my interpretation of the word concentrates on written letters.  As a result I’ve spent the afternoon in the basement of my home pouring over the letters I move with me, written by family members.

Today my memories are resounding with the voices of my past…..my father, his brothers, people I only know through family lore, and most clearly, my mother’s voice.  The letters date from as early as 1938 and many of them were exchanged between Mom and Dad but most of the ones I have in my possession are between my mom and I, once I moved away from home in the early 80’s.

I didn’t even begin to delve into the majority of them but the ones I did read are full of my mother’s voice as she detailed, week after week, the things she and Dad did, the people they saw, the events happening in the city I grew up in.

Conversely, my letters to her (now in my possession after her death) are full of the very new and different life I was immersed in as an Air Force spouse and later, the things the boys said and did as they grew up in this Air Force family.

I was full of emotion, remembering and hearing her voice as I continued to read her words.

It’s cold and blustery today here in Nebraska and I had already walked Xavier once, fighting the rain and wind, so I wasn’t completely on board with taking him out for his evening walk.  This base isn’t particularly big and my path is usually the same day after day, following one of four routes.

Tonight I decided that if I was going to be out there I was going to see something different and so I reversed the way I do things and walked past places I don’t normally go.

I was rewarded with this.

One of my mother’s favorite flowers, the only purple lilac bush I’ve seen on this base, in full bloom in front of an unoccupied home so I felt not even one ounce of guilt for picking them.

I’m pretty sure both God and Mom were co-conspirators on this particular wink.

I felt so hugged.

The photo challenge post will have to wait until tomorrow.