06 May 2004
Esther Spodek
Dear Carrie,
I thought I'd write to you to tell you how your mom is doing.
It's been a good nine months now since you were here. At first I watched you mom huddle with the rest of the family, going off to the Monahan summer house, to church, and there was, of course, her surgery. We met occassionally for coffee and sometimes said things about you. It was always me who called her to check up and make plans for doing something during the week. Then one evening your mom called me.
It was such a small thing, I'm sure, if she or you were to think about it. And I'm not on the daily, even weekly calling list for her. But that is just it. To make the step from people she was used to communicating with daily to the next circle of friends showed me, at least, that things were moving forward. Then she told me that she was going back to taking classes, and the knitting group--remember that goosey group of women that used to get together, sometimes with you on the couch making sarcastic remarks?--is back to meeting on Wednesday mornings. This, too, was your mom's idea.
So, Carrie, she's moving along and I'm really proud of her, as I am sure you are, too. I know there are deeply sorrowful moments, and I don't think they will ever go away, nor should they, but she has a spark of strength still, and it will grow.
Lots of love, Esther
PS We'll be calling her this summer to ask how to inflate the pool with a hair dryer.