Emails From Megan

I once read a book called Letters from Susan - a collection of letters that a daughter had written to her mother, telling of her travels around the world. I really enjoyed the book but, unfortunately, there was a tragic ending to the story. I guess that's what led to the book being published; if there had ben a happy ending there would have been no reason to do so.

One day I'd like to collect and collate some of the emails that Megan and I have shared over the years, especially some of those from her first six months at College in 2006. Priceless some of them (to me anyway but probably not to anyone else - and Meg would maybe cringe at some of them now. I've kept them all, archived away).

We've always emailed a lot; barely a day missed in four and a half years but there hasn't been so much of it going on this last six months (obviously) but now that she's back at work, they've started again. I want to record one lot of communication because the ending of it warmed my heart and made me stop and think how true her words were.

I'd been to the doctor yesterday morning about an ongoing problem with my ear. When I got back to work, this exchange began (Megan in italics).

Aren't you the best momma! Thankyou. How's your day? Did you put the drops in your ear yet?
Yes, put the drops in but my ear/head is starting to hurt
Poor your head. Just go home. Lay on the couch with Nut (note - Meganspeak for Coco, the dog, as in coconut) until 5.30. What's for dinner?
Dinner? I have no idea
Chinese!
Mmmmaybe
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! Pllllllleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeee.
Are you begging?
No. Pleading maybe? Not begging. I'm giving you eyes like Coco gives me.
Doesn’t work on me
Hmmm.
Lets see at 5pm. I’m hungry now.
Maybe if you keep thinking about how hungry you are you wont be able to help yourself and at 5pm we'll all go and have Chinese! When will Greg be home?

He’s on the road now, eta 4.30 – 5pm
OK. Maybe we could get a little bit of Chinese for him as well. I'm so excited we'll all be together again. It's not a family when someone is missing.

It's a fairly mundane exchange that I thought was going nowhere until that last sentence and it made me stop and blink - we might think or feel these things but we don't often say them and to see them written made them so powerful. When one of us is not here, there really is a hole.

I might start a new little segment called Emails from Megan and pick out some of the more interesting exchanges from the archives.