AN OLD LETTER FROM NANNY

Working with memories is like weaving or making collages - especially when I try to connect my memories with stories I possibly heard when I was a child.





A 1917 letter my aunt Catherine gave to me always reminds me of a day I was visiting my father's mother, at her home. We were sitting in the "music room". At first she was quiet until something sparked her to remember a trip with her husband to New York long ago. The most vivid memory I have of that conversation is her description of going to a Broadway theater to see "The Merry Widow." She talked of the beautiful theaterAs she talked about her dress and a new fashionable hat her eyes were sparkling and she was smiling as she remembered the evening.  I never forgot that afternoon.

In 1975 my friend Marie and I went to Vienna, Austria. We wandered the cobbled streets, ate delicious pastries with coffee, visited art museum, and an impressive castle. One evening we went to the ornate Vienna Opera House to see "The Merry Widow".  and the memories of the conversation with my grandmother flowed over me and I felt very connected to her although in real life I was not warmly close to her. It was a good feeling.

Finding this letter my aunt had given me was quite a"gift".  So glad I wrote about it -so that I did not lose the memories of her again - - and that I connected to those days of WWI - - knowing more now about that time gives her letter more life for me.