A Proper Thank-you
Candy Puterbaugh
50plus Magazine
When I was a child, at the start of each new year Mom handed my three sisters and me pens, stationery, and lists of gift-givers deserving thank-you notes. Amidst giggles and groans, we set to the task, which took much longer than it should have. We got the job done with as few words as possible. We joked about making each note the same:
“Thank you for the thing you
gave me. I use it all the time.”
But guilt — plus our mother looking over our shoulders — kept us from penning those words. The task wasn’t easy, especially with the “white elephant” gifts we didn’t want.
Thinking back on Mom forcing our hands, my childish mind still wants to write that forbidden note.
Dear Grandma,
Thank you for the dictionary you gave us for Christmas. We really like it. We use it all the time. My mom and dad like it, too. I could tell because after we opened it, mom said to dad, “Oh, great! Another dictionary to add to our collection. Just what we need. Isn’t that just like your mother?”
Then dad said, “We’re going to have words over this.”
Then he called her a word I’d never heard before. I looked it up in the dictionary, but couldn’t find it.
Then mom said you were always a wordy woman but that she wouldn’t want to look you up and that you didn’t have much definition. (I had to look that up.) Do you know what that means?
Dad pretended he was mad and said, “I’d like to throw the book at you.”
Mom said, “I could say a few things to you right now, but I won’t because there is a child present.” I guess that meant me.
Dad said, “Hit me with it.” So, she did. I guess the dictionary doesn’t have every word in the world because dad shouted, “There isn’t a word in here to describe what you are.”
But there must have been some words mom was interested in because she tore some pages out to save them. And I guess the book has lots of uses because she used some of the pages to build a fire.
You may have to give us another dictionary next year, Grandma, because mom and dad are using it so much. I hope you come to visit soon. Thank you again for the dictionary.
Love, from Sally
PS: Mom just asked who I’m writing to but I didn’t tell her. I’m going to mail it first and then tell her for a surprise. Besides, she said she’d give $100 to anyone who wrote this note for her.
On a much more serious note, I am thankful to my mother for instilling the basics of gratitude in me. She was happy to see that I passed her lessons on to my two young sons long ago, and now simple thank-you notes come in three grandchildren’s sprawling letters. So the gratitude tradition continues, although today a thank-you can also come in the form of an email, text, phone call or visit. Hopefully, it always comes straight from the heart.
Candy Puterbaugh is a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, groan-inducing punster, writer, competitive runner, pet lover and tender of chickens and gardens.