By November, 2013, I had lost both of my parents to cancer (that's another story) and was left to clean out the two-story house we rented with nothing but a few friends, some pizzas and a prayer.
Not even an hour in and we realized that mom was a full-scale memory hoarder. She never threw anything away, not even my pre-k registration. Buried beneath heaps of decade-old magazines, high school uniform order forms and paperback books like "2 Cute 2 Fall 4 Guys" were handfuls of handwritten treasures just waiting to be found.
From notes penned on the back of receipts from my father to my mother to birthday cards from mom to me, there were plenty of heartwarming keepsakes -- most of them ugly cry-inducing (just call me Kim K.). Then, there were those that made us laugh.
Like this portrait sketch of Hilary Duff:
And my third grade science project:
My hypothesis is that leaves change color by how much it eats. I think it's becaase of chorphyll. I picked this project because I wanted to know more about leaves.
And, arguably the best find of the day -- besides the thousands of dollars in change that we'd eventually turn into TD Bank -- was this formal letter, handwritten in gel pen on terrifying stationary, from me to the members of NYSNC:
Translation:
Dear NSYNC,
Hey I know you don't know me yet, but my name is Meaghan McGoldrick. I'm in 4th grade and my teacher is Mrs. Aruchy. For Joey I go to P.S. 170 and C.C.D. at Our Lady of Angels, in Brooklyn New York. Well now you are able to know a little about me. But now about you! Now first for J.C. Is it true that you know how to drive? Well if you can Write Back, write to [address]. Now for Lance, my friends at school say your a real hottie, and they wanna marry you. What do you look for in a girl? Anyway now for Joey, why did you lose the red hair? I really loved it! Now for Chris, How do you feel with being the oldest member in the group? Now last but definitely not least, Justin, tell me, are you really dating Britney Spears? Now about the charity basketball game, Chris how did you, or why did you pull down the referee's pants? Do you play sports like that all the time? Anyway break a leg -- or break ten of them! (laughs)
Yours truly,
Meaghan McGoldrick
P.S. Write Back - if you can!
I'm still mad mom never mailed it.