It happened last December, the 24th to be exact (yes, I’m thinking about this since a while now). Ami and I where just returning from our afternoon walkies and on our way back in I casually peeked in my snail mail box. At this point I should tell you, that I very rarely get snail mail since I have all ads blocked and everything else is done digitally anyways. There is only one letter ones a month that comes via snail mail. So yeah, the peek was very casually and I didn’t expect to find anything, but to my surprise there was one lonely letter. I fished it out with two finger, too lazy to actually unlock the mail box. The “letter” was actually a card, I could feel that through the envelop. The writing on the envelop clearly was from an elderly person, no return address. Very curious since I don’t know any elderly (nope, no family) except my elderly neighbor, but she wouldn’t send a card vial snail mail, she just would hand it to. She is a totally sweet 80 years young lady. We often have extended chats over the fence. Ami loves her to pieces. But now I’m getting distracted. Where was I? Oh yes, right, that mysterious card.

So who would send me a card for Christmas? I contained my curiosity, put my coat on a hanger and fixed a fresh coffee. Then I sat down and opened it. And that is when it became really strange. The card was on you would send a business partner, kinda very neutral if you know what I mean, but the real surprise was inside. The card was from my father. I haven’t heard, let alone talked to him in over 30 years. What the heck is happening? Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides “oh today I gonna be a decent human being for a day”, right?

At this point I should give you a bit context. My childhood, like for so many of us, was not nice. Money was not an issues, neither alcohol or drugs. My parents and the absence of love and care along with physical and emotional abuse where what my childhood was made up of. With 14 I voluntarily went into foster care to get myself away from them.

So, now he had a brief fit of decency (maybe) and he has nothing better to do then to send me a card with a rather generic text? My first idea was, ok, maybe he wants to talk and reconnect. I send him a card back (same generic text, mind me, no need for me to get personal with that person) and scribbled my cellphone number at the bottom of it (extra tiny letters *grins*) to prevent more snail mail. One month later I got a text from him (regular text, not Whats App not Signal, I don’t use Whats App). Again very generic text: “I wish you a nice week. Peter”. Ok, maybe he needs an icebreaker, something to break the anxiety. At that point I was still thinking he might want to get something off his chest because why else would he contact me in the first place. And no, I’m not scared of him. He can not harm me anymore, beside he is close to 80. So I send a picture of Ami along with a funny text. That was a month ago and still no reply. Obviously he does not want to talk or make an honest effort to reconnect. Honestly I do not know what he want and I couldn’t care less, but still my curiosity is nagging the living daylight out of me. What does he want? Anybody got an idea?