I Found Us Today

I found us today.

Beneath birthday cards from your Great-Grandma Gifford and high-school photos of long-forgotten classmates.   Buried under scrapbooks of Katherine’s 2nd-grade school papers and 2^nd-grade handwriting.  Hiding under yellowed “Walton Reporter” newspaper clippings and 5 or 10 old high-school journals--I found us.

 

 Silent, still, unmoving.

 

To be perfectly honest, my heart stopped--just completely stopped beating.  No air.  No sound.  There we were.  20 years of “us” lying in a tiny shoe box wrapped with a ribbon.  How could something so innocent jolt my insides to the core? 

 

I wasn’t sure what to do.  I hadn’t touched us in years.  I hadn’t looked at us, or smelled us, or felt us.  I couldn’t.  It was all too painful.  And now there we were, inches away from my fingertips.  I could almost feel the box pull my hand as if it were a magnet.

 

My hand never moved.  I closed my eyes, but never moved my fingers away from the peach ribbon that had caressed my wedding bouquet.  I closed my eyes, suddenly remembering to breathe.  Inhale.  Exhale.  Inhale.  Exhale. 

 

As I slowly untied the ribbon, removing the lid, it was as if we were again.  Memories engulfed me.  All of it.  Everything at one time.  Dancing at our wedding, Dad’s funeral, the smell of a newborn baby girl…I actually had to sit down I felt so dizzy.  Was it possible that the ribbon"that tiny faded and frayed lace, peach ribbon, was strong enough to contain us?  How could that be?

 

I saw first days of school and a little tow-haired Katie dressed in a print blouse and blue jeans. I saw a blue Ford Escort--our first car.  I smelled your cologne--so strong and real--it was as if my head still rested on your shoulder.  I tasted the salt on your lips and for a second?  For one split second?  I felt the love. 

 

Perhaps 30 seconds had passed--and yet--a lifetime.  Not even realizing I was crying, I held leftover wedding invitations to my chest and wiped away the tears.  I clung to your love letters"hundreds of them"and surrounded myself with the love that once was.

 

I found us today.

 

 

Reviews

[Shelley Holt-Lowrey]

Mrs You.... I must say I have enjoyed meandering through your writings (at 3 am I must say). I have just laughed, cried and walked through your life. Would that I could share with your freedom that much of myself. I have found you to be raw and honest in a way I hope to become. Thanks for sharing so much of yourself in your writing. Brave... and very funny. Beautiful presentation. Powerful voice. Thanks.

[Samuel Dickens]

I don't say "wow" very often, but it sure seems appropriate here. I have a similar box of old memories, and I'll bet most folks do, too. Momentos like that can transport us back, if only just partially and briefly so. The way you've constructed this is perfect and packs quite an emotional punch.

[Walter Scott Morrison]

This gives me the feeling that life has gone by too fast and things have changed before I can even register what's happened
Provoking

[Joel McCarthy]

Very nice. "Was it possible that the ribbon"that tiny faded and frayed lace, peach ribbon, was strong enough to contain us?" This is a powerful line. I myself tend to rid my closets and crawlspaces of past memories that would just be too painful to relive. But often there is always relic to be found, one that tells us of who we were and who we have become. Great writing.