Letter from my sister

I've just received this in my emailbox. The only changes I made were to remove names and addresses. Jean is 56; she is a librarian, retired for about 3 years because of Parkinson's.

My apologies for the length, but that's part of the story; you'll have to imagine the erratic spacing--I don't know the coding in HTML for leaving in 3 or 4 spaces between words:

I will attempt this without mistakes for I can't bear spelling every single word wrong because I can;to tyy pe any more= should send an uncorrected version with the polished one !

We are okay ' had a good tie with [R.] and [A.] and [A.]'s mother,. [W.], who is 87, send their best regards to you [W.] is still teaching ballroom dancing and lives in Essex and is opinionated as ever. Address;

[J------], It is a love cottage on 1./3 of an acre and
they both work form home so
Ch**** Green Lea, have to travel. [R.] does 35,000 miles a year and in
[W----field,D--], that's a Bunch! [A.] sellls fish filtration units
overseas Markets loft
Norfolk [postcode] Mentioning that all she met in the USSwere
billionaires or millionaires.


WE only made it to Sheffield on the Friday 12/23 mad [W@k#f!#ld] on 1/2 through a courtesy car as I crashed the Toyota on the 21st December and so far absolutely nothing has happened to it of today.. The estimate finally went off to the insurers on Thursday so we ca only hope they sorted what to do onFriday but haven't bothered to tell us. Normally it's a lotfaster than this Just remind yourself not to crash at Christmas. For those of you I did no tell you full details at Christmas, I wasn't hurt at all and I am evaluating my choices as a driver..Rosellen has weighed to say I should;t...

(Short break later after seeing [L------] (6 out of 8 last games lost) beat
Tottenham Hotspurs
coming back from 2-0 to win 3-2! There is great rejoicing in [L------] tonight!)

As for Christmas it was nice to not be supporting Jesse financially, so we didn't
have to nag him and we enjoyed the time he and Rosellen were here. Spoke to
Marguerite today- they are back from Morocco yesterday after a week in Agidir on the seaside pointing out into the Atlantic
It was hot and windy she said, bringing to mind the origin of the harmattan in
Sierra Leone which made everybody cold when it got down to 60 once or twice. Yorkshire was a shock at 28 degrees F yesterday.

Speaking of degrees, segueing effortlessly in best DJ style, Rosellen;s graduation ceremony isl on January 27th and Jesse's is on the 21st of Feb. Jesse's present from us might be a plane ticket since he missed last year's festivities and since Rosellen and Marguerite both got a trip after their degrees; I think he;ll want to come in the summer maybe with a friend so he doesn;t have to travel
alone. If anybody saw a job on offer for the summer let me and him know - he does
have his American passport. I'll forward this to him

I think that is all I can manage tonight = was going to tell you
about the new vicar and her nine points and about my go-around with doctors
and latest news on the falls front, 2w on Friday, no injuries except losing two
hours trying to get up, I replicated it tonight with Reg and it only took 15
minutes that time so I learnt from it. THE muscles just don;t answer the call
anymore !!!

MARIE I'm sending you a second email with .jpgs of the Tuscany details,
Hope you can open them - fine print about 399kb each - 2 of them.

Jan I sentyou a birthday card along with one to Katherine! Yes, I know it's August but I got mixed up with [John C---]'s birthday being the same and Katherine's the same day as yours 17t h so I blipped - my first senior moment, the
first one I;m admitting!

Sparky Let me know what you want for your birthday and Christmas!! I;ll probably;y not remember to send a card to you the way I'm going (See above)

The rest of you: all communications welcome, even stray birthday cards .

Love J

She is 14 years older than me, so when I was about 7 she was in college. She spent two years in Sierra Leone around that time, and my mother saved all the letters. I think Jean has them since we broke up Mom's apartment last year. But they were the best letters: full of news, gossip, description and love. She could draw pictures with words and make the reader see the kids she taught, the jungle, the daily chores...

There is absolutely nothing dignified about getting Parkinson's. It just roundly sucks.