Time Capsule

When I was in England in March, I opened up a cook book belonging to Mum, and out of it fell a folded up letter, yellowed with age. It was from me, written on Easter weekend, in April 1981! The reason it was in the cook book, I soon realized, was that it included a recipe for Spanish Rice.

Reading the seven page, handwritten letter, was just like stepping into a time capsule. It captured a moment in time. My goodness, I was just 31! Peter was 11 and Brenda was 9.

We lived, at that time in our lives, in a big, rambling farmhouse on two acres of land between Newmarket and Aurora. The road that we lived on was called Second Street back then and it was a dirt road lined with fields and other farms. Now it is Bayview Avenue and lined with housing estates and shopping centres.

We lived with and cared for, 12 gentlemen with disabilities and the story of how that came to be and what those years meant to us, is a story for another day, but suffice it to say that I was chief cook and bottle washer, among other things, and those days were some of the happiest of our lives.

On this particular weekend, one of the things I was raving about, was the arrival of a brand new dishwasher, my first ever. Since I was quite exhausted a lot of the time back then, I was ecstatic. Here is what I wrote (please forgive the over use of exclamation marks (it is a habit from which I have only recently been delivered:)

Happy Easter to you all! It's five past three in the afternoon here. I just accidentally had 40 winks while I was supposed to be having a cup of coffee. And I always thought coffee was supposed to wake you up!

First of all I must share the exciting news that the dishwasher arrived last Wednesday. I just can't put into words how wonderful it is! It has far exceeded my hopes and expectations. I've been really set free from slavery! Ha ha!

I never really thought a dishwasher would be a great help to me until recently. I don't know if I told you that Jean and Don Rowe moved to Newmarket in February. They live just around the corner from us now. Anyway, I was at Jean's house and she has a dishwasher. She was saying how it keeps your kitchen always so tidy and how she loves it, and I started thinking about it. Then Paul asked me if I would like one and I didn't hesitate! Everything goes in it--plates, saucepans, even plastic things, which I thought you wouldn't be able to put in. And everything comes up spotless! Cleaner than by hand. I can't wait for you to see it and enjoy it with me. I know I am very, very lucky, and I do appreciate it so very much. It gives me about 4 hours a day more than I had before and so far I have used them well. This morning before I left for church, everything went in from breakfast, plus quite a few dishes from yesterday evening when I'd been baking, and when I came home I just had to unload it and put it away!

Believe it or not, I actually went on for another half a page about this appliance, ending by asking if they had any suggestions for a name for this new delight in my life, and by saying:

I hope I'm not boring you with all this; I'm just so very grateful and happy with it.

Well, it made me smile to read it and I hope it makes you smile too. I was certainly grateful don't you think? :)