[Janet]

I found it. This is from an Ann Landers column in the newspaper. I cut it out about 10 years before Ricky was born so if and when I ever had a baby, I would pull this out and read it, that was over 27 years ago......so here goes....


Dear Ann Landers,

Recently my mother passed away. I was going through her belongings and found a letter she had written to me 22 years ago. She never gave me the letter. Why, I will never know. I would like to share it with you. Perhaps you may wish to share it with your readers. Sign me....A Faithful Reader from Montreal.


Dear Daughter:

It may seem strange for a mother to write a letter to a four-year-old child asleep in the next room. This letter won't mean anything to you now, but perhaps it will mean something later when you have a child of your own.

When you were an infant and the newness wore off, I couldn't wait until you grew up. At first I found myself wishing, "if only she'd start walking"...and then ..."if only she'd start talking..." One day I realized you were out of diapers. You were walking and talking and pretty soon you'd be going off to school.

I remember the morning your father and I brought your baby sister home from the hospital. You and I had been apart six days. When the door opened I saw you standing there with your angel smile. You seemed so big compared to the baby I was holding in my arms. It was hard to imagine that you were once that small. I suddenly realized how much of your babyhood I had wished away. It made me ashamed. My heart almost broke.

I cannot relive those first four years, but I have been trying to make them up to you and to myself. I hope and pray that when your first child is born you will be more mature than I was. I hope you will enjoy every phase of your child's growing up and not wish they would hurry and pass.

You and I will have our share of heated words and angry battles in the years to come. There will be days when we just can't plese each other. I will wish you were through with high school so I could send you to college and be rid of you. And then I will think back to that dear little face in the doorway and my anger will melt. I will realize you never again will as young as you are at this particular moment. Life rushes by too rapidly my darling daughter, especially the lovely days and the beautiful times. Be wiser than I. Don't let a single moment skip away unsavored or unappreciated. All my love , Mother.

Dear Montreal Reader: what a treasure! Thank you for sharing. I saw myself in your mother's letter and I shall phone my daughter today to make sure she reads it.