Here is a young and highly educated woman who knows that her time is very limited, and is not only facing that with great courage; she is determined to spend what is left to her in making the world a more joyful place for anyone ... ANYONE ... who makes the choice to contact her and to ask her for a postcard.
About a year ago, I made that choice ... to ask Beth to write to David, rather than for myself, because he almost never gets mail.**
I certainly didn't realise until his first card arrived, that it would be a mini work of art, filled with stamps and stickers to create a complex layer of images.
His cards are the last thing he sees at night and the first thing in the morning.
I'm not at all sure that he understands their significance, but I read each one to him as they arrive and he chooses which side will be displayed and precisely where it will be placed.
It makes me happy because it makes him happy
and then
not so long ago, a beautiful, ethereal postcard arrived
- made of special Japanese washi paper - and not for David but for meit arrived at a time when I was feeling less than stellar
and then this week there were two more cards ... one each ... but these had been posted back in November and had gotten 'lost' at the post office along with several Christmas cards and some very overdue cards for my birthday. I suspect that they'd probably all been sitting in the wrong box [ maybe an unused one ] and had just been discovered and hastily shoved into the right one.
However it happened, now I have two reminders of Beth's love, compassion and bravery ... and David has three.
Go visit Beth
Read what she has to say.
and ... ask for a postcard. I know some of you will hesitate
but don't.
They say that you don't get something for nothing in this world. That everything comes with strings attached.
The only 'string' attached to this, that I can see, is that perhaps you will make a connection with, and end up caring about, someone that you might otherwise not have met.
** The trickle-on effect:
After the first time that I wrote about Elizabeth's Postcard project, lovely Tracy from Zimbabwe contacted me through Ravelry and then sent Dave a card to add to his 'collection'. Thank you Tracy from both of us.
and just bye the bye - I used PSP - pretty ineptly - to 'white-out' my address, I haven't actually taken to the postcards themselves with the Tip-ex [ just in case anyone was worried that I'd defaced them in the interests of internet privacy ]
7 comments:
I love that washi paper postcard - the sakura is very ethereal.
She's a remarkable person. What works of art those are!
These are really beautiful.
What an inspiration.
She send us wonderful postcards too and the children have them up on the wall - and they have just sent her a postcard from each of them to say thank you (and I collect nice postcards and pack them up and send them, and then Beth sends them all over the world!)
I've been a recipient of Elizabeth's postcards, too. They always come as a surprise and they're always beautiful. I keep one in my mirror at home and one near my desk at work to remind me of her courage and amazing sense of humor. Reading her blog is a sobering thing. Sometimes I hesitate before I click on the link because she's been so close to death that I'm afraid. But then I look at the card and think if she can write it, I can read it. And I do.
All postcard requests went out two weeks ago, so if they don't appear in a week please let me know and I will send another one - just wanted to let you know that silence in your post box is due to the lack of a teleporter device.
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