November 2, 2022
The following two blog posts never saw the light of day. I wrote them and then didn’t do anything with them. So I’m putting them up now. Just to be sure they’re included.
December 4, 2019
I wrote the blog post below four years ago to celebrate an unusual tradition. It’s my turn to wait this year to find the treasured Christmas card in my mailbox.
When I read the message and telepathically send my love to its sender, I will squirrel it away somewhere easy to remember (nothing worse than hiding something so well I forget where I put it!) until next year when it's my turn to ponder over a single line of greeting, jot it down and send the card back. Who knew way back then that this lovely ritual would endure for so many years?
December 8, 2015
It is 33 years old this year.
When I bought it in 1982, Hallmark charged 75 cents for it. Today it would cost four dollars or more.
There's nothing that noteworthy about the card... a guy with a Santa hat and red bowtie in red elf slippers with bells on them, flinging his arms open wide, saying, “Merry Christmas to a really wonderful, witty, charming, intelligent person!”
Inside, it reads, “Save this card! You can send it to me next Christmas!”
I sent it, way back then, to Michael DeNardo, a young Temple University student whom I'd followed during his years at Edgewood Regional High in Winslow. Mike was studying to become a radio broadcaster, which he did most successfully. His voice still can be heard on KYW news radio.
In 1983, much to my surprise, the card reappeared, returned by Mike as a typical joke.
I saved it, and sent it back to him in 1984.
Each year, as it traversed from wherever I was living to wherever Mike was, we appended a one-line comment by way of greeting.
Gradually, we ran out of space inside the card (even writing sideways one year). So we graduated to the back from 2004 to 2012.
That being filled by then, the following year, Mike inserted a plain white piece of card stock with the words, “This should carry us for a few more decades!”
Today, December 8, 2015, the card arrived again. It was Mike's turn this year and he did not disappoint. He said, “Our card endures. It'll be eligible for Social Security soon!”
The last time I saw him in person was at my 60th birthday party, 14 years ago. He looked like the teenage Mike I remembered and his infectious laugh hadn't faded.
But whether we are able to meet or whether our only contact is the Christmas card, we know our friendship has given us a wonderful tradition.
When the inevitable Christmas sadness settles on my heart at the absence of so many people I've loved and lost, I can look at the card Mike sends and get a boost of joy.
Little blessings mean so much and Mike is always there to provide one of my favorites.
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