Yesterday, cleaning up some shelves we found a bag with greeting cards and letters. Among them, we found a letter my mother had written to my grandmother more than 30 years ago.

When I was nine years old, my parents sent me for the summer to Toronto. I spent some days in Montreal with my grandparents. My grandmother sent a letter while I was there, and my mother replied when I was already back in Mexico.

Dear Christine:

Happy Birthday! I hope these Halloween cards arrive on time as the children wrote them but I myself didn't mail them soon enough because of small problems.

We received your lovely letter and I knew from the beginning Mark had been with you in your beautiful home spending his days. That made me very happy as I know Mark will enjoy your company as well as grandpa's.

I hope you enjoyed Mark, he loves nature and animals. Now he is playing chess, as is Margaret and David. David is a champion. We don't have a TV.

Mark came back from his trip really excited. Unfortunately he is losing his English. I'm going to push him to speak more, but he is a little shy. Now he loves to speak about sex [I doubt it] and nature, probably that is the reason he doesn't want to speak much.

I hope that you come to visit us soon, as the stork will be visiting Cindy and Augusto [Canadian relative in Mexico] soon. Hope both of you can come, we have plans for you.

David, Esther, Margaret and Mark.

PS The children made these drawings for you, but it is probably better to burn them. They made them before David got sick, now he is better but please don't hang them.

I recall this trip as one of the best times of my childhood. My aunt and uncle are one of the nicest people you could meet, their apartment had a TV and a microwave, which seemed magical to me, as my house in Mexico was luddite-like.

The letter doesn't say much, but I found a resonance with my current situation. I'm at my grandparents. I'm still a little bit shy. I still don't like talking much, but when I do, I speak about sex and nature. Please don't hang on to these words, burn them from your memory.