Phone Calls Were Expensive | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Phone Calls Were Expensive | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dawn Olsen
01/17/07
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Phone Calls Were Expensive

Times were tough and phone calls were expensive so necessity demanded writing.
I watched as my Dad wadded up another sheet of blank writing paper and threw it in the trash. He got up, paced around the room, then sat at the table tapping his pencil and drumming his fingers. Sigh. He scribbles a few more words, then head in hands he sits, frowning and thinking. Grabbing the pencil, he jots a few words, crosses some out, asks my Mom how to spell a word, wads up the paper and throws it in the trash. Chewing on the pencil, he tries again, "Dear Mom and Dad, Hi! How are you? The weathers been fine...... " hmm, more pencil chewing, staring off into space. "Oh shucks," he says as he wads up the paper and throws it fiercely in the trash can. "I quit, I just can't think of anything to write."
As a child I remember being awed and suprised at the torture and agony writing was for my competent Dad. With a wife and five children and working two jobs you would think there would be plenty to write about about - and there was, it was just that he froze when it came to putting his thoughts on paper. Once in a while, inspriation would come and he'd manage to get a few widely spaced lines on sheets of paper to his folks and Mom would be grateful!
Lately, his love letters to my Mom came to me. The fact that he wrote frequently that summer is amazing. More amazing was how little he actually said! As my Mom must have done, the letters and notes from my Dad, now with Jesus, are treasured. Treasured even more because I know the time and pain involved in his writing and the love behind the skimpy words. Some notes he wrote are odd combinations of anecdotes and comments, containing misspelled words and short sentences, but to me they plainly say, "I love you!"
Times may not be as tough or phone calls as expensive and writing not a necessity, but when did you last write, "I love you!"?

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