Gratitude

Dear Miss Dorothy Gretchen Flickinger

A thank you note to a unique friend from my childhood

Thank you for the books from your childhood; I’m 45 now and still have them on a shelf.

Thank you for the subscriptions you gave Charlie and me to National Geographic.

Thank you for bringing me presents like dolls from Japan, papercuts from China, and a dollar bill from Egypt.

Thank you for letting me water your plants when you traveled.

Thank you for talking with me as a grownup about writing and art.

Thank you for living happily with your Scottie dog and showing me that women don’t always get married.

I wrote this while remembering a family friend, Dorothy Flickinger, who enjoyed sharing her love of books and art with me. I recently started a project of writing short thank yous and making thank you collages (like the one in the photo for this article). Then I asked friends to write thank yous to include in a print zine called Thank You which I launched with a fundraiser that raised $777 for a nonprofit organization that helps young people in foster care in Washington state. I was happy to find a publication here on Medium dedicated to thanking you notes. Thanks, Trista!