My parents shared this with me, and I’ve since shared it with others. I never met or knew this woman, but I learned a lot about her struggles and even her ambitions as a child and a young woman from this letter.
It’s made me feel very fortunate, and is a good reminder of why its important to plan for our futures while also being grateful for what we have. With the many goals we’re all trying to reach, its easy to take things for granted sometimes.
Here it is below, transcribed with minor grammatical and spelling fixes:
Friday Evening, January 24th, 1992
Dear Jackie & Duane,
How are you on these cold wintery days. To tell you the truth I’m freezing, its terribly drafty in this place and hot during the warm season, you can’t judge a book by its cover. I think they charge way too much for this place $290 a month plus $150 security. I understand these people have other places too building for retirement. He works down state I’m told she works here someplace, its a good idea to look ahead if you don’t want to be left out in the cold.
In my day on the farm there was no Social Security and I worked hard and put in long hours. After I married my husband never had a job at anything else to my knowledge. So I’m on welfare. The government had been dragging their heels in that respect, its really funny sometimes the way they do things. I could of gotten Social Security if I had stayed single and worked for my brother.
Anyway it cost me $300 a month with what I pay to have the driveway cleaned out when we get a big storm then I pay $11.79 for any water pills I take plus gasoline to take me places and then pay Janice to do my laundry, and groceries and other things are going up, up, up which I’m sure everyone will agree to that and I get $392.40 a month so I really have to exercise my brain to keep pace and keep the wolf away from the door.
I was one who was not fortunate enough to get an education. My sister did. But me, well I played the part of Cinderalla, part one, if you have heard the story. When I was 12 years old, I took on the responsibility of doing all the chores of house work for a family of 5. On the farm it wasn’t easy in those days. We had to stand over a wash board to do the laundry and scrub floors, bake bread, churn butter and do all baking and cooking from scratch. So it was anything but easy and I did that for 6 years. It all came from my noggin I had no cook book. But I got to be a professional at it. Made all kinds of things and really got to like being creative. But made the mistake of not using my skills where it paid off.
So here I am old, sick and homeless only for what the government does for me. And I’ll give you a piece of good advice don’t ever depend on the government take care of yourself while you are young and plan for the future. Then and only then can you live in peace and comfort and enjoy life and your children & grandchildren. This old world is a tough place and one has to be kept strong to survive in it and I’m not doing a successful job at it. They tell me I came into this world in a blizzard and I’ve had a strong life and its too late to change that.
Well anyways you take care of yourself, be good to yourself, and before I close I want to thank you for the pictures of my great grandchildren. Its the nicest thing that has happened to me in a long time and I appreciate it very much.
Gotta go now. Love, Grandma XOXO
You must be logged in to post a comment.