How to melt a heart

I have always enjoyed receiving heart-felt notes from nieces and nephews. Many of my nieces and nephews are only ten or so years younger than I (Sorry for the reminder, Cheryl), so I have notes from them dating back to the late 50's. I find it touching to picture a little hand holding a large pencil or pen, working hard to make the letters correctly. Probably the tongue is poised at just the correct angle from the mouth, too, in order to make sure all focus is on the work at hand.

It's fun to come across a note when I least expect to, buried somewhere in my disorganized pile of memorabilia.

Now, it's my little great niece Violet who writes notes to Uncle Ken and me. She and I practically share the same birthdate. Her birthday is just three days before mine (Oh, and sixty years).

Violet and I got together to celebrate our birthdays a couple of weeks ago. Violet arrived carrying her latest art work: A carefully crafted card with many words and happy drawings.

I love the frisky tails she puts on her "a's." Sometimes the frisky tail crowds out the letter to follow, such as a "y," but no matter.

Violet is at her best when she has markers and crayons in hand. She gets right to work, drawing fairies and chickens and houses with curtains blowing unabashedly in the apparently wide-open windows.

For my birthday card, Violet drew a happy heart and, best of all, a flower with multicolored petals. I wish someone would create a hybrid flower with exactly these colors on each petal. I'm not sure the flower's stalk needs to be quite as sturdy as this one, but if it is, all the better.

The pain of turning 65 was eased quite a bit by little Violet, age five.