Peter, Marcy, Jed, and Jay

On a crinkly sheet of letter-sized paper, folded in half: A note from Peter (one page, which is to say half of a letter-sized page), followed by a note from Marcy (one and a half of those half-pages).

Also included: a map of how to get from the freeway to our house. I haven’t transcribed the instructions. The map is a little surprising to me because south is toward the top of the page; given that George and Helen were going to be driving south from Washington state, I imagine that Marcy figured that the “direction you’re going is toward the top of the page” convention outweighed the “north is toward the top of the page” convention. On the map, I’ve redacted the specific address. …I’m amused at the place where it says “sheep”; I don’t have any memory of what was across the street from us there, and especially don’t remember there being sheep, but I guess there were.

I think this may have been part of George and Helen’s driving trip (in their RV) that also included Southern California, possibly Mexico, and possibly other parts of the US. But not sure of any of that.

On the envelope flap, Marcy wrote: “peppermint-flavored envelopes!!!” I vaguely remember that—flavored adhesive on envelope flaps, presumably to make the experience of licking the envelope more pleasant.

March 21, 1977

Happy Spring!

Dear Folks--

Here are the cards you wanted me to sign--I was surprised, not realizing how probate court is avoided. Thank you for this expression of trust, though I trust you will both have plenty of time to use up what’s there.

We’re eagerly looking forward to seeing you--have you thought about anything you’d like to do?

I hung up the computer cartoon on bulletin board at work. (Thanks)

Love, P.

---

Hi from me too. I ’spect you know that all of Peter’s identification is in the name George Peter, except his birth certificate. Passport office said the change was so minor it didn’t matter; I trust that is true here, as well.

I am much much better; taking the last of the anti-biotics tonight. Still anemic & very low energy. Very grateful for your prayers & love. We are going camping (school trip) this weekend, & I expect to take it very easy & let others do the cooking & cleaning up.

Delightfully anticipating your visit—enclosed is a mini-map of how to get here from the freeway (which is right smack dab by our house)—

Much love—Marcy

Notes

cards

I’m guessing that George and Helen must have set up a trust, and were having their kids sign cards to be able to have access to the funds in the trust in the future.

(I’m guessing that Peter’s two uses of the word trust here were meant as sort of puns.)

“at work”

I have no idea what work Peter was doing. Maybe back at the bookstore? At some point in the year or two after this, Peter took some computer classes, but I think he probably wasn’t doing that yet at this point.

“Peter”

I assume that George and Helen had spelled Peter’s name as Peder in the documentation for the trust.

anemic

I’ve been reading the letters from this period with a certain anticipatory tenseness, because at some point in the late 1970s, Marcy found out that she had leukemia, which is what she died from a few years later.

Reading ahead, the next mention of her being ill is from over a year later; but at that point, she talks about it as something that’s been going on for a while. So I suspect that this illness/anemia was an early stage in the leukemia.

But I don’t know. It may have been something entirely unrelated.