marty has a sister who lives in new york city, typically around the village. she's very good about sending birthday cards and occasional notes of thought. her messages are always bright and colorful, just as she is. recently she helped bella out with a school project (as did one of my everyman judges noted in the below message) and sent the following update to us which i thought was colorful enough to record here on the site (which for the record is where i record anything i feel worth recording).
Just wanted to let you know that I mailed off Flat Rebecca to Marco in Italy today. It should arrive in a week. I doctored up Bella's original letter explaining the decorations with white out and copied it (so it no longer said Dear Aunt Susie and P.S. You are my #1 aunt) and included it with the school letter explaining the project and a blank journal page.
When you give him the heads up that it is arriving, you'll probably want to clarify that he should send it back to the school address that I circled and starred. It does say that it should be returned to the school in April but it's not a very clear letter and I assume English isn't his first language.
I just packaged up my journal pages, photos and souvenirs to send to the school. I wrote a long letter and included some personal things about Bella. I hope that's ok.
I shared that her nickname before she was born was Baby Rockefeller, that her name comes from Italy in honor of her parents' decision to have a baby when they were there and that she walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with me when she visited her friend Grace years ago.
If you think this is going to embarrass Bella terribly, please tell her in advance of the package arriving at school. And tell her I'm sorry if she's upset about me sharing some personal things in the letter. I didn't think she would mind because they are all sweet stories and relate to the adventures I had with Flat Rebecca.
Hope you are well.
-Susie
for any wondering, a flat rebecca is a school project where kids make a paper doll, typically a flat stanley for boys and a flat rebecca for girls. they then send it to someone they know that lives in another state or country and the person who receives it takes the doll around their city and takes photographs with the doll and writes about their adventures. the dolls then get sent back to the school with the photos and writings for the kids to read and share. as noted above, bella sent her doll to her aunt in new york city and to one of my everyman judges in italy.
