I'm getting notes BACK!

This is unexpected and exciting.  Yesterday I got a note BACK from my kindergarten teacher, saying that she always found something special in ALL of her students.  Words to live by!   (She also said I made it easy... :)

And today, I got this from my ex-classroom neighbor.  Highlight of my day.

First week of notes!

First week of notes recipients:

Fran Winick, Grace Deighan, Jen DeGraphenreed, Jodie Goodnough, Kim Howe, April Palmieri, Mom: was in the hospital this week, but she came home to a note! 

I'm surprised as to how easy this is.  I had already spent a day stuffing cards, writing names on them, stamping and putting on the return address labels.  I put them all in an attractive box I like to look at, and every day I pull one randomly (except mom and my former teacher, that was intentional) and write down my first thoughts, whatever they are.  

It takes me all of 4 minutes.  Not a lot of time to tell someone why you think they're special or great.

Happy I'm doing this.  Hope they enjoy it!

The inaugural note

The inaugural note goes to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Fran Winick. 

Mrs. Winick, for what reason I don't know, took four of her students aside after school was over and taught us to write.  Kids were learning to write in the 1st grade, but she saw something special in the four of us, I guess, and I would stay after school with her and practice in a special notebook I had.

Out of the four of us, I was the only girl.

This is the only note that I'm going to share, because I think it needs to be shared, and considering tomorrow is the first day for students, it seemed particularly fitting.

***

Dear Mrs. Winick,

I teach in a world where parents push their kids too much, where every kid's a genius.  My parents never pushed me to do anything, which was fine.  But you saw some potential in me that I didn't see, and probably my parents, either... And I have carried that special feeling with me my whole life.

I have always felt special, and I think it's all because of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

<3 Cindy

***

This is where my mother chimes in and tells me that I'm special and apologizes profusely for never pushing me.  IT'S FINE, MOM, YOU DID GREAT.

And in just a day and a half, the list of 100 is complete.

Well, a couple more than 100.  But who's counting?

It took a trip to two different Target stores to get the cute, matte and recycled paper notes I like.  It turns out that either they're not making blank notes any more, only thank-yous, or they're out of stock.  When I went to the second Target, they only had two styles left, and one was this one:

The butterfly is the symbol for Turners Syndrome girls... kinda like a spirit animal.  I don't really believe in signs, but today I did.

I entered all the addresses on my computer for safe keeping.
I picked a card for each person, stuffed the envelope, and wrote their name on it in Jennifer's favorite color.
I created the blog.
I printed special return address labels (I figured I could cheat not hand-writing my OWN address)
affixed the stamps on each of the cards.

I'm exhausted.  I don't know how she did it.

The idea behind 100 Handwritten Notes

Herb, Jennifer, Cindy, and Bonnie Phillips

My sister Jennifer died suddenly of Diabetes on December 18, 2012.  She was barely 37 years old.

Jennifer had a really difficult life.  She was diagnosed with Turner's syndrome when she was really young.  Turner's syndrome girls develop many health problems, and Jennifer had a lot of health problems in her short life.  She often felt really sad that she had so many health problems and felt like she was dealt a really bad deck of cards.

Despite that, one of Jennifer's greatest pleasures was to buy, write, and send greeting cards to people she knew.  She sent them for every life event: birthdays, anniversaries, religious days, and "just because."  She was really old-fashioned this way.

When Jennifer died, people came out of the woodworks to say what a beautiful soul she was, and how she would often be the only one to commemorate an event with a card, and how much it meant for those people to receive them.

As her sister, I didn't really appreciate receiving her cards.  It used to feel like it wasn't even a day that went by before I received a thank-you note to a gift I had purchased her; "I'm your sister!  You don't have to send me a thank-you card!!" I would scoff.  Of course, I'm sure she was incensed that I never sent her any.

After Jen died, my father said, "you're going to want to see this."  It was a thank-you note to me, from her, for bringing her shrimp and calling her after she was in a car accident.  She didn't have the time to mail it, but it still found its way into my hands, post-mortem.

I treasure that card so much.

In her memory, I am going to send 100 Handwritten Notes in 100 days to people who want them.

My handwriting is awful.
I'm a leftie so the pen always smudges.
It doesn't matter.

Jennifer, I miss you and think of you every day.  This is for you.