Part 3.
You are a long way from Australia; from Tasmania. You have never been there. If you were honest with yourself, you’d admit you imagined some reader who says to herself, wait, that’s me in that story. That’s my mother’s life, her gift for articulation; that’s my father’s short life, our three days together. Who says I’ve never known them like this, so young and fast or how elegantly hurt can wander through loops of cursive. If you were honest with yourself, you’d wonder a little who this stranger is, whom you see from a perspective perhaps no one living has seen her from. You’re related after all. Having transcribed all of these letters, you wanted to laugh with her about Miss Tasmania 1985, what a thing to say! Don’t try to find this woman by searching records with the details of her life. That would be a mistake. You would write three years too late.
What will you include in your letter?