Letters from the Shoebox

My grandmother was a prolific letter writer. She diligently wrote her cousins all over the United States seeking information about her family. Like I've said before, she really developed relationships with those strangers that became quite strong. I came across one letter the other day that really touched me. 

It was written on the 9th of August 1979. As a sidenote (and really the whole point of this post) is that that date is just a few days before I was born. So imagine my surprise when the first line read, "Congratulations on your new granddaughter" and the last sentence was "Give your new granddaughter a kiss for us".

It sounds silly, but I nearly cried as I read that line. The mere fact that I was discussed before I was even here, that there was excitement on both ends of this letter about my birth (feigned or not) and that I could feel the love they had for me even before I was born felt a little surreal and then to read it decades later was sweet.