Ivy Hearts
“When you blow out your candles this year, wish for something big. You have made so many of my wishes come true, and I want to return the favor.”
“When you close your eyes and make a wish over the candles, know that your old dad is wishing the very same thing, only harder.”
“I am better at fixing things than I have ever been at saying any of this out loud. So I have mostly shown you instead, and hoped that you were counting it.”
“Everybody is about to give you advice that you did not ask for, so here is none. Only this. I have watched you look after people for years and you are ready.”
“You tried to tell me, and I did not listen the way I should have. I am sorry. You deserve to be heard, every single time.”
“You came back in at the end of a long shift to check on something nobody had asked about. I was awake. I saw you do it, and I have thought about it a great deal since.”
“The dress fittings and the seating plan and all the phone calls I dreaded. You took every one of them off me without being asked and without any credit.”
“Nothing about this was handed to you. You earned it the long way. That is the kind of success that stays with you for the rest of your life.”
“You asked for more than I thought I had and you did it every single session. It was deeply annoying at the time and it is the reason I kept going.”
“Everybody is going to be looking at the door and you are the one who goes first. You walk, and then we all follow. That is how the whole day gets started.”
“You have already stood where I am standing and you know how the day goes. So you have spent weeks quietly fixing things I did not know were going wrong.”
“It is a role most people take on and then quietly let go of after a few years. You turned up to every single thing for decades without being reminded once.”
“You make a lot of hard things look easy, and I know they are not. I see how much work and heart goes into every one of them.”
“You clock the thing I have not said yet and you go and ask about it anyway. Nobody has ever paid that much attention to me without making a whole project of it.”
“You came down the stairs on Saturday and I lost the sentence I was halfway through. This has been happening since the night we met and has not stopped.”
“After all these years, you still manage to surprise me almost every week. A new joke, a new idea, or one more reason to fall for you again.”
“You went first through all of it and you had nobody ahead of you to ask. By the time I got there you had already worked out which parts were survivable.”
“There will be days when you do not know how to fix something. You will figure it out, the way you always have, and I will be a phone call away.”
“It starts to feel like Christmas the moment your car pulls into the driveway. Before that it is just lights, a tree and a lot of waiting.”
“Your Christmas lists used to run three pages, with pictures cut from catalogs. These days, the thing I want most is just time with you.”
“Your first classroom is waiting, with empty walls and a desk that is all yours. By June it will be full of drawings, noise and kids who think the world of you.”
“The first time you pay for your own groceries, you will think of me. And you will finally understand why I hid the good snacks.”
“Your house, your rules. Eat cereal for dinner if you want. Just promise me you will eat a vegetable now and then.”
“I hope your new neighborhood has a good coffee shop and friendly neighbors. And I hope you find your favorite walk before the first month is out.”