As I read this note from my dear Aunt Chris, visions of the old church movie “The Mailbox” flashed painfully across my mind:
I have taken Grandpa Hess to get his mail several times in the last little while and it is always empty except the dumb ads It would mean a lot to him and me if you would occasionally send him a little note in the mail. Not E-mail because he doesn’t get on the computer much anymore. He may not even remember that you have sent him a note or even who you are but it would be so fun for him to get little notes of love instead of an empty mail box. I don’t know how long we will have this great man with us so please take this advantage and do this.
Love Aunt Chris
(Vivian & Great Grandpa Hess, Summer 2007)
All it will take is ten minutes a week to write my amazing, aging Grandpa Hess. I know, because I just sat down and did it. And whatever pleasure it brings him to receive the note will be nothing compared to the love and gratitude I felt as I wrote it.
I’ve tucked away the last two letters my grandfather wrote me (also addressed to his other immediate family members). Although the content of the letters will be of no interest to anyone else, I feel compelled to include a few excerpts from one of them and will post links to the entire transposed documents later.
One the letters is the substance of the testimony my grandfather bore in Sacrament Meeting back in November 2004. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was (and will be) the last time he bore his testimony in church. He told of a party being held to honor his Navy Battalion during WWII:
“The Battalion was made up of good, skilled men, solid citizens; but of course they had never heard of the Word of Wisdom . . . and so I didn’t fit in very well at the party. The Executive Officer of the Battalion said to me: “Oh Chaplain, you will be just like the rest of us in a few months.” I left the party early that day and drove in my jeep back to my tent in the Unalaskan Hills; and on the way I sang at the top of my voice and with tears in my eyes: “True to the faith that our parents have cherished. True to the truth for which martyrs have perished. To God’s command, soul, heart and hand, faithful and true, (I) will ever stand.”
Grandpa Hess, may I ever be found staying true to the faith that my GRANDPARENTS have cherished. True to the truth for which you and Grandma sacrificed so much.
I pledge to you “to God’s command, soul, heart and hand, faithful and true, (I) will ever stand.”
