The Christmas Card from 1987

In December, I got a Christmas card in the mail with a return address I didn't recognize. Inside was a note from a woman in Oregon. She'd been sorting through boxes in her great-aunt's attic and found a Christmas card my grandmother had sent in 1987. The card had never been mailed.

So she mailed it. To my grandmother's old address. The current owners forwarded it to my mother. My mother sent it to me.

Inside, in my grandmother's beautiful slanting handwriting, it said: "Dear Fran, Merry Christmas! The kids are growing like weeds. Little Susie (my mom!) just learned to ride a bike. We think of you often. All our love, Ruth."

My mother cried when she read it. I framed it. I also wrote a thank-you note to the woman in Oregon, who wrote back, and now we exchange cards every year. Thirty-seven years late, my grandmother's card made a new friend.