This week’s post took a surprising turn! Initially, I had planned to completely scrap the idea of the traditional blog about Valentine’s Day, and instead write about a very young bride in my dad’s family tree. However, in the spur of the moment, I pulled a 180 and decided to go on a hunt through my family photo albums for an old valentine card.
Week 6: Valentine
I only had to open 2 albums before I spotted what I thought had to be a collection of valentine greeting cards.
Photos of greeting cards, 2021, in personal possession of Kira D. Foltz.
With all those hearts, you’d think so, anyway! But no. Turns out they were all cards written to my grandparents from my sister and me, most addressed on Grandparents’ Day and Mother’s Day.
I almost moved on, still in search for a valentine. But the nostalgic part of me needed to see what the cards contained, as I’d probably eventually toss them out. Perhaps it was destiny or maybe just a coincidence, but when I opened up the card with the dragons on it, an old cream-colored envelope spilled out.
It certainly didn’t belong. The envelope was addressed from Cal State University, Los Angeles, which, from what I know of my family, we had absolutely no connection to. And it included a few slips of paper! What could they be? Turns out they belonged to my grandmother.
My maternal grandma was a registered nurse, and as most people in the medical world know, those professions always need to keep up with continuing education courses for their licenses to remain up-to-date. Looks like she enrolled in an introductory health assessment class. Not even my mom (her daughter) knew this – and she’s also a registered nurse! To top it off, she only earned a C. This is surprising, because while my mom owned the fact that she was not a great student, her mom was the complete opposite. My grandmother had even been valedictorian and was excellent at her job, so for her to have earned a C in an introductory health class is pretty unimaginable. It makes you wonder what else was going on in her life at the time, that she couldn’t dedicate herself to her studies.
Photo of Edna Millhouse’s Cal State LA school records, 2021, in possession of granddaughter Kira D. Foltz.
The final slip of paper that was included in this Grandparents’ Day card is such a fun find! It was a jury summons notice for Los Angeles County. The best part? My grandmother scribbled at the top “My first exposure to the system”. It’s the type of unimpressed and sarcastic flair (and just plain old disdain for red tape in our society) that I’ve grown into throughout the years. I love the fact that she had it, too!
Photo of Edna Millhouse’s jury summons notice, 2021, in possession of granddaughter Kira D. Foltz.
I couldn’t be happier with the prompt this week! It didn’t go in the direction I would have thought, but it helped me discover paperwork I never would have found or seen had I not been on the search for a valentine.
It ended up being this year’s Valentine’s Day gift to myself.
Carol, that's a lovely story! I have a stockpile of old letters and notes from friends, classmates, and crushes as well. From time to time I feel nostalgic enough to peek in on them again. Thanks for sharing.
This would have been perfect for this week's "Unusual Sources". I am Australian but stranded in Canada for the duration so I don't have bits of paper to search through and initially had no idea how to tackle the Valentine story. Then I vividly remembered my first, real, boyfriend at age 17 when we were in our final year at school. His parents were furious with him when he broke up with me. They had welcomed me into their family like another daughter. Several years later, I ran into him again. We'd corresponded from time to time but I wasn't aware he was back in town. He asked if we could pick up where we'd left off and I had to tell him, no. That time had passed.
Somewhere back home I have all his letters tied up with a piece of ribbon which goes to show he was a happy memory for me.