Sealed with intent and extra love
The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles has “a job of the utmost importance.” He delivers letters retrieved from bottles “found at sea”. Whatever the message, the Uncorker journeys until its recipient is found because letters are important and once written they must be received. “Sometimes the messages were very old, crunchy like leaves. Sometimes the messages were written by a quill dipped in sadness. But most of the time they made people quite happy, for a letter can hold the treasure of a clam-hugged pearl.”
In The Gardener (by Sarah Stewart with pictures by David Small) Lydia Grace Finch has few possessions when she must journey to “the city” to live with her Uncle Jim. She bravely leaves the comfort of her family and a beautiful country home with its flourishing garden. She is armed with seeds, stationary, and strength. Lydia Grace’s first letter home notes that “Uncle Jim doesn’t smile”, but she realizes that “the sun shines down on the corner where I’ll live and work.”
It seems that particular path of sunshine has been waiting for Lydia Grace. She knows nothing of baking, Uncle Jim’s business, but knows hard work and learns how to knead bread while planting her seeds “in cracked tea cups and bent cake pans.” Soon her industriousness leads her to follow Otis (charming bakery cat) to the secret place, the rooftop just waiting for a gardener. And that is what all the neighbors and customers call Lydia Grace as they share their containers and plants from their gardens, “the gardener”. Ah, but she is a writer too.
Lydia Grace has sowed and nurtured a secret rooftop garden just for Uncle Jim. His response is “the most amazing cake I’ve ever seen-covered in flowers!” and Lydia Grace “truly believes that cake equals one thousand smiles.” And all the while Lydia Grace has been gardening and baking she has also written and received letters from home. Letters that have continued to nurture her love for her Mama, Papa, and especially her Grandma, who is also “Lydia Grace”.
The Depression years are filled with hopefulness as Lydia Grace plants joy in her corner of the city with Uncle Jim. A letter brings news to the city of a job for Papa and Lydia Grace prepares for the journey home. Uncle Jim hugs her deeply and parts with Otis, his gift of love. Perhaps a new correspondence between Lydia Grace and Uncle Jim will begin.
Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles portrays another beautiful relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter. This time Miss Eula, Ruby’s grandmother, is the traveler and she is leaving Halleluia, Mississippi for exotic Hawaii. There has been a tragedy in the lives of Ruby and her grandmother and Ruby cannot bear to part with Miss Eula “Please don’t go. I need you to stay here with me.” In addition, there is competition, a new grandbaby: “ ‘ What’s this new grandbaby’s name?’ ‘She doesn’t have one yet. But her name won’t be Ruby and she won’t be you and she will never, never take your place.’ ”
Miss Eula must take this trip. “ ‘I’ll be back when I’ve had time to soak up Johnson and Annette and the baby. When I’ve talked and talked about your grandpa. When I’ve lived away from reminders of Garnet for a while. When I’ve made some new memories.’ ” How will Ruby survive without Miss Eula? How will she cool off when she must face Melba Jane (her arch enemy and peer who knows Ruby’s most terrible secret)? How will Ruby endure the endless meals of zucchini her mother is inventing? How will Ruby care for Ivy, Bemmie, and Bess without Miss Eula? But most of all, how will she face an empty knothole?
You see, the knothole is where Ruby and Miss Eula leave and retrieve their daily letters to one another. Even when they are together in Halleluia they not only see each other each day, but also share their love for one another through daily correspondence. Now the gaps in their conversations will be long and wide as the “regular mail” cannot keep up with Ruby’s needs and her constant longings and questions for Miss Eula.
Before they are parted, Miss Eula leaves Ruby with some important thoughts, “ ‘I’m taking you with me, Ruby girl. I’m taking you in my dreams and you’ll come to me in your letters. You will write me, won’t you? I think you’re a pretty good writer …for a nine-year-old.’ Ruby’s voice was full of cracks. ‘And your a pretty good scribbler yourself…for a grandmother.’ ”
So Miss Eula leaves for Hawaii and Ruby is left behind in hot Halleluia. At first her days are “total torture”: sweeping floors for Miss Mattie, enduring Melba Jane who is the equivalent of a “mosquito”, and feeling like an “empty paper bag” each time she passes the knothole in the silver maple tree. However, Ruby has responsibilities to attend to. She must care for Ivy, Bemmie, and Bess who are chickens that Miss Eula and Ruby rescued from slaughter. Ivy is sitting on her nest and Bemmie is nosy and jealous, Bess just eats. Ruby reads to them to calm them. Also, there are newcomers to Halleluia, the Ishees and their niece Dot. Dot is nine years old just like Ruby and working on becoming an anthropologist. Mr. Ishee will be Ruby’s new fourth grade teacher come the fall. In the meantime, she meets them for root beer floats and the summer ahead seems more promising.
More trouble and heartache are in store for Ruby, but there is friendship and love too. And as summer passes, Ruby continues to write to Miss Eula and she writes back. Often their messages are a bit out of sync, but they are always sent with intent and love. And just when Ruby thinks she cannot hold out for Miss Eula’s return any longer, she is called to rescue Melba Jane and she does. And all the while, Miss Eula was back in Halleluia sitting in the audience with Ruby unknowing. “ ‘Dear Ruby Darlin’, I got off the bus from Jackson and there wasn’t a soul in town — they were all at the operetta. So I bustled myself over there and watched from the shadows. I saw what you did for Melba. Ruby, I am proud to know you.’ ” And Ruby is proud to know and love Miss Eula who lives at The Pink Palace, owns and wears an abundant collection of muumuus, and is waiting for Ruby to join her for parched peanuts and sorting pictures. Miss Eula has some new memories to share and so does Ruby.
While the letters sent and received in The Gardener and Love, Ruby Lavender are exchanged between family members, those sent and received in Boxes for Katje and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are sent to and from strangers who will help each other so deeply that it will feel as if they are family. We meet Katje in Olst, a tiny Dutch town, and although WWII has ended, Katje and the rest of Olst live daily with few necessities and no luxuries. Postman Kleinhoonte pedals down the cobbled street with a box for Katje as she is the lucky recipient of a box from America. Inside the box Katje finds a cake of soap, a pair of wool socks, chocolate, and a letter from Rosie, “Your American Friend”. Rosie writes, “I hope these gifts brighten your day.” Indeed they have and Rosie has brightened her mother’s and Postman Kleinhoonte’s by immediately sharing her chocolate with them: For several moments the three savored the almost forgotten taste.
Katje sends a letter to America: “Dear American Friend, Thank you for the soap and the socks, but most of all for the chocolate. Sugar is not found in Holland these days, so anything sweet is precious. My mother and Postman Kleinhoonte very much enjoyed it, too. Your Dutch Friend, Katje Van Stegeran.” Rosie’s reply is, “ Dear Katje, No sugar? Yikes! That’s so awful. Mother and I are sending you some. We included some for your postman, too. Your friend, Rosie.” When Rosie receives and opens this next box from America, a bigger crowd has gathered to witness her good fortune: four bags of sugar. Rosie once again shares on the spot and the deLand family with five children who are “skin and bone” are beyond grateful. “Sugar, sugar, sugar,” sang Postman Kleinhoonte.
There is no end to the need in Olst and as Katje always sends a letter filled with gratitude and honesty, Rosie continues to find ways to help her Dutch friend and the people of Olst. Boxes and boxes are delivered containing “coats, mittens, socks and shoes, scarves, hats, and sweaters. Cakes of soap! Chocolate bars! And bags, cartons, and cans of food! And at the bottom of the very last box there was a letter from Rosie. “Dear Katje, You won’t believe what is happening here! Everyone, everywhere wants to send a box to you. The school organized a canned food drive. The church organized a clothes drive. Even the local businesses added items to the boxes. We hope there is enough here for all your friends and neighbors. Love, Rosie” Because of Rosie’s small kindness and Katje’s letter of gratitude a great need is known and filled. When the harsh winter is over and the tulips bloom in Olst, Katje knows just what to send her American friend: “Dear Rosie, We hope these tulip bulbs from Olst will brighten Mayfield’s days. Plant them in the fall and wait for a surprise in the spring. Love,Katje”
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is beautifully written and cleverly constructed completely in correspondence. And while the initial letters are written between Juliet Ashton and her publisher, Sidney Stark, (who is equally an endearing older brother figure as well as a kind and encouraging boss), Juliet soon receives a charming and meaningful letter from Dawsey Adams, a stranger. A book of Juliet’s has found its way from London to the Channel Island, Guernsey. Juliet parted with this beloved book of Charles Lamb’s (The Selected Essays of Elia) as, “I had two copies and a dire need of shelf-room, but I felt like a traitor selling it. You have soothed my conscience. I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.”
Fortunately for Dawsey, Juliet’s address is written inside the front cover of Charles Lamb’s book as Dawsey, “loves Charles Lamb. My own book says “Selected”, so I wondered if that meant he had written other things to choose from? These are the pieces I want to read, and though the Germans are gone now, there aren’t any bookshops left on Guernsey.” Dawsey is “far too thin”, but it is his hunger for reading that unites him with Juliet. Like the chocolate for Katje that is almost a “forgotten taste” books have sustained Dawsey and the his fellow members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. “Charles Lamb made me laugh during the German Occupation, especially when he wrote about the roast pig. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society came into being because of a roast pig we had to keep secret from the German soldiers…”
This is almost too much for Juliet. She must have answers to “several questions. Three, in fact. Why did a roast pig dinner have to be kept a secret? How could a pig cause you to begin a literary society? And, most pressing of all, what is a potato peel pie-and why is it included in your society’s name?” Thus begins and grows the correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey which will, in turn, grow into much more. Dawsey’s answers to Juliet’s questions all point to Elizabeth and her hunger for much more that food, or books, or daily comforts. Elizabeth is “fierce in her love” and fierce in her fight for justice. You must meet her, find Elizabeth in the many correspondences that develop in this exquisite novel.
Elizabeth is that magnificent character we all strive to create and know. With the sound advice from Colum McCann from Letters to a Young Writer we can do so: “ You should be able to close your eyes and dwell inside that character’s body. The sound of her voice. The texture of her footsteps. Walk around with her for a while. Let her dwell in the rattlebag of your head… Don’t be too logical. Logic can paralyze us. In the end, if you don’t know your character, sit down and write a letter to her.”
So, be a “good scribbler”! Search for your best stationary and stamps. “Pick up your pen, start writing…” Send a letter and let it be a treasure, a pearl, as colorful as a field of tulips. Go to others in your letters and let them “come to you” in return. Share your thoughts and brighten days. Send “one thousand smiles”!
Quotations in this post are from primary sources listed and pictured.
