>From: "Pearl Fernane" <pearlyshellz@...>
>To: "Joy Morris" <joymomgram@...>
>Subject: Fw: You are a Keeper!!!!!
>Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 11:12:30 -0700
>
>Message
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Jackie Ellis
>To: 'Carol' ; 'Ellis, Betty' ; 'Pearlyshellz' ; 'Susan'
>Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 8:39 AM
>Subject: FW: You are a Keeper!!!!!
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> I grew up in the fifties with a practical parent -- a mother,
>God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused
>it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it...
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> A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying
>new ones.
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> Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best
>friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee
>shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand and a
>dishtowel in the other. It was the time for fixing things -- a curtain rod,
>the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, and the hem in a dress.
>Things we keep.
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> It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy.
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> All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to
>be wasteful. Waste meant affluence.
> Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.
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> But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in
>the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning
>that sometimes there isn't any 'more.'
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> Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes
>away...never to return.
> So...while we have it...its best we love it.....and care for
>it....and fix it when it's broken.....and heal it when it's sick.
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> This is true.....for marriage.....and old cars.....and
>children with bad report cards.....and dogs with bad hips.....and aging
>parents ....and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it,
>because we are worth it.
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> Some things we keep.
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> Like a best friend that moved away -- or -- a classmate we
>grew up with.
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> There are just some things that make life important, like
>people we know who are special.....and so, we keep them close!
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> I received this from someone who thinks I am a 'keeper' so
>I've sent it to the people I think of in the same way.
> Now it's your turn to send this to those people that are
>"keepers" in your life.
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> Good friends are like stars....You don't always see them, but
>you know they are always there
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