For Gram

Last night, I sat down and completed my Dear Neighbor packet from the American Heart Association. For the past five years, every January I address envelopes to my neighbors and include all the information sent to me by the AHA. I dutifully collect pledges and mail them back in. It takes a couple hours of my life, and I grumble but agree to do it again next year.

Issa saw me working on it last night and asked me what I was doing and why. I explained the research behind fundraising campaigns of this type and why the AHA is important. I explained that it really didn't take that much time and it meant more money went to the real work. But I didn't tell her the whole story...I didn't want to get teary. But I hope maybe someday she'll read this and understand.

I really do it for Gram. Every year, she sent in her little check to the AHA. No big fanfare. No big conversation. But she was a faithful supporter. It was one of the few organizations that really mattered to her. Me filling out those envelopes is a little love letter to her. The entire time I'm thinking about her, doing something that I know she believed mattered. It hurts in the best possible way. And that's why I commit every January to do it the next year...and I always will...