To Emily Kate

Dear Emily,

Tomorrow you will turn 18.  

At 18, you probably don’t want me to write about one of my favorite memories of you.

I love the memories of shopping in the grocery store & sensing movement & there you were.

At 18:

You will be able to vote.  You will be accountable in a court of law for any infractions.  You can enter into a contract  & you can buy property.  If you were a male, you would be required to register for the Selective Service, just in case Congress decides to bring back the Draft & call you into military service (a sexist act – women are among our troops in both these crazy wars we are fighting).

Voting is huge.  

I wish that your grandfather had lived to know the wonder you are & the wonder your mother has become & the wonder she married.  

 In these times, when people across the world are protesting for the right to vote, you will be given the right & responsibility to vote tomorrow morning.

Vote with your conscience & conviction. 

Grandpa Jack raised me to vote that way – he did not always agree (there is the famous story of him throwing a plate of spaghetti across the room when I told him I was voting Democrat, not Republican, the first time I voted).   

But he believed in voting with conscience & conviction.

Jack would have adored you.  Third generation Aggie – nothing would have made him prouder.

You will be going off to college, living “independent” of your parents, very soon.

 

That is huge.  Your parents have given you a wonderful foundation in faith & family & friends.

I know that my father, your grandfather, Jack , will be watching over you.  Wonder that you are,

Love,

Jaki