This is an open letter to the thieves who broke into our home
last week. I’m sure you are congratulating yourselves on the heist
you pulled off.
Editor,
This is an open letter to the thieves who broke into our home last week. I’m sure you are congratulating yourselves on the heist you pulled off. Silly people like us who trust their neighbors and don’t see the meanness or devious thinking taking place in our day-to-day lives in our own neighborhood. What did you really come away with? Among the easily-fenced DVD player and camera was a man’s watch, a father’s watch to his son inscribed on the back with his dad’s name. The watch didn’t even work, but to the son it was priceless – a lifetime of memories. To you, or whoever winds up wearing it, it is just a watch with another man’s name on the back of it. Not your name. Not your memories. There was also a comb and brush set given to a daughter by her mother. More memories of a loving human being who, when she was alive, spent hours brushing her daughter’s hair with this set. Whoever receives this comb and brush will never understand that it was meant to be handed down to the next generation from mother to daughter. That is over now.
You also took away a sword from my collection. What you didn’t know was that a family curse goes with it. Enjoy!
It would be too easy to become cynical, suspicious and afraid of everyone around us after having our lives and home violated like this. You have succeeded in making me more nervous in the short term, but in the end you have lost. What you could never steal are the memories we retain of our loved ones. Those memories are passed on to our children even if dad’s watch and mom’s comb and brush set can’t be. You will not be the Grinch who stole Christmas from us. We will continue to celebrate the blessings in our lives. There may be some tears, but I promised my son, who is in the Marine Corps, and my daughter, who is graduating from college, that I will be strong. These colors don’t run (red, white and blue) and neither will I.
Linda Nolan, Hollister
