A Nice Surprise

So last night, I'm sitting at the computer reading all the nice things everyone has responded to my post from yesterday (sorry for the selfishness, sometimes I just gotta vent!) and Austin is playing with his new fish tanks (he got 2 new small ones and 1 big one for Christmas - gave the 2 small ones to him early - the big one is on backorder so he won't have that until after Christmas) when the door bell rings. Hmm....not expecting anything because I try to avoid sending stuff to the apartment because if we're not home, it's such a pain to get it from the office since they close usually before I even get home from work. So Austin comes back upstairs with this huge box. About 30 minutes later, the UPS guy comes back with a second smaller box. Interesting....they are from Philadelphia, so I had a clue what it might be.

When we got married a few months ago, I had sent my godfather an invitation to our wedding knowing he probably wouldn't come but I wanted him to know what was going on in my life. Somewhere around my middle school years, he and my godmother stopped talking to me....apparently they got into a disagreement with my mom because she had tried to help her aunt (my godmother's mother) who had alzheimers get into a proper care facility. For some reason, my godmother was very against this even though her father couldn't take care of her in her condition, so instead of just accepting her mother's sickness, she got mad at my mom and family and then in turn stopped speaking to me. It really sucked because at the time I didn't really know what was going on, and they had always been so kind to me before sending me cards and gifts and making me feel special growing up. And it was 100% gone. When I was in my senior year or so of high school, my godmother passed away. I hadn't spoken to her in years so it didn't phase me much although I was sad.

When I graduated college, I decided that I wanted to send my godfather a graduation announcement and in it I enclosed a letter explaining what had happened in my life in the past 10 years or so. I got a package in response with a framed picture of my godmother and a piece of her jewelry and a short note saying congratulations and best of luck. So when I got married, I did the same thing - sent a wedding invitation and hoped for the best that he might actually acknowledge. A few days after the deadline for the reception cards, I received a response in the mail from my godfather. He told me how he was glad to see I was doing so well and gave me a more than generous check (which he didn't have to do). He also told me that he was planning on sending me some framed artwork for my new place.

So last night I received a large framed piece of needlework that my godmother had done about 35 years ago in a beautiful wooden frame. And then another smaller piece that my great-aunt (my grandmother's sister and my godmother's mom) had done in an amazing gold frame. I can't wait to put them up in our new apartment, and I feel very special that he sent them to me. So last night it was a pleasant surprise to have these things sent to me. I hope some day that I can get back up to Philadelphia to see my godfather because I haven't seen him in so many years. I wish things hadn't turned out the way they did with my godmother, but that's the way things go sometimes. You can't force people to understand that you are only trying to help them or their loved ones if they get it in their mind that you are doing something else. I'm just glad that I now have these two pieces that I can treasure always, and I can't wait to tell my grandmother that I have a piece of her sister's work. :)