Reading Between the Lines

This is a photo that Suzanne, the wife of my Dad's older cousin, Henry, sent to my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, in the late 1960s.

Suzanne wrote:

Tucked on the top of the bookcase is your gift: the drawing of the bird. It is executed in a such an original style. I think it is very effective.

The angel's head is a very old piece of wood folk art. My daughter received it as a gift a while ago from an old friend. She used to joke that her friend's only character flaw was that he spoke French with a Lithuanian accent.

Among the books, you see Jadvyga and Jogailla, a gift to me from [?]. We always argue about that story, but it's pointless.

The color of the painted bird changes in the evening. When there is nothing worthwhile to watch on television, I stare at that bird and think about you folks. I think about how life's circumstances got all knotted and tangled up, and I think about how everyone scattered into entirely different lives and corners.

I believe in fate, and I am grateful that we have you.

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1973. Suzanne reads a copy of Kauno Tiesa. "Tiesa" is the Lithuanian word for "Pravda," or "Truth."