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A Tribute to My Grandma

letters from grandma

My grandma and I were close from the very beginning. I slept over on weekends and we would call each other on the phone to catch up. After my grandpa passed away, I signed up for a semester abroad in Italy. My grandma and I would exchange letters weekly. I would share my travel adventures with her and personal stories. In some ways, I think this helped distract her from the loss of my grandpa. When I returned, she asked if I wanted the letters. That is one of my regrets, I wish I would have saved her letters and my letters from over the years.

I have kept a few of the letters that she sent over the years and I have tucked them in books and different places. I will run across them from time to time randomly and they always make me smile. She used to send $2 bills in her letters and I also kept those and stash them in different wallets. It is a little reminder she is with me.

In the letters, my grandma would also send newspaper articles. They would be on a variety of topics on things she would think I would find interesting. Alongside the articles would be a post-it note with details on the article. My aunt and uncle have carried on the tradition, sending me letters in the mail with newspaper clippings.

When I started the blog, I would collect articles and share them on Facebook whenever I came across something of interest. I decided to round them up weekly and share them with readers now called Links I Love. ā¤ļø I think of this as a tribute to my grandma weekly to continue our tradition of reading and sharing articles from newspapers and magazines from the week.

If you go back a few years, you can read links I love and they are a timestamp of history. This past year of the pandemic, I have shared articles on different stages of lockdown, baking trends, re-entry anxiety, and now what we have learned from the pandemic.

My grandma never had a computer but read a lot and was up to date on technology and trends. When she passed, Twitter was trending and she knew all about it. If she was still alive, I know she would have been the biggest fan of the blog and would have continued to send me articles I would find interesting and to share with all of you.

As you read links I love, my grandma is the one to thank for encouraging me and inspiring me.

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  1. I love this very personal amd sweet story about you and your grandmother and how she started the project by inspiring you. Love this. ā¤ļøšŸ’™

  2. I appreciate your loving Grandma. My Grandma would also tuck a green spot (as she called it) in a hand written note to me. She would fold the money in a tissue. Such a great memory.

  3. Wow Rebecca how beautiful and such a wonderful tribute to your grandmother sheā€™s always with you watching over her Rebecca!!!! Happy birthday to your grandmother in heaven and a very happy birthday gorgeous girl to you today enjoy your blessings and your wonderful special bday and today you have Henri to celebrate it with and all of us who celebrate you on your special day xoxo best wishes always when you make your bday wish es come true kisses n hugs yo both you and Henri love your blog Rebecca

  4. This is so touching. My mother used to send letters with articles as well. She used to send them to my children too. I, too, am sad I didnā€™t keep them. Letters are such treasures. I think we need to write letters more often to our loved ones. A letter can bring back such beautiful memories. Thank you for sharing this beautiful memory of your beloved grandmother.

  5. A grandmotherā€™s love is unlike any other. I took my grandmother to Paris two and a half years ago. It was a trip of a lifetime. Nothing will ever compare to that time in that place with her šŸ–¤

  6. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your personal backstory of Links I Love. When my grandmother passed away, I collected letters that were mailed to her back in the 1940’s by her mother-in-law. That was an entirely different period during the second world war. I cherish taking the letters out once in a while and pressing my face to them.
    I hope you continue Links I love for a long time to come,
    Kimberly (from Trinidad and Tobago)

  7. What wonderful memories. My mom – born in 1923, sent our children notes and newspaper articles and a few $2 bills too! Whatā€™s w that? Anyways now that Iā€™m a grandma – maybe I need to figure this one out too! Blessings to you today as you think about and pay tribute to Grandma! xo Dorothy

  8. Itā€™s a very sweet tribute to your grandma! My grandma and I always wrote each other letters when I took my first job out of college and moved away from home, and I would call her every Sunday evening. Sheā€™s been gone almost 29 years, but I still think of those calls on Sundays and her typewritten letters. xx