Recently I had two phone calls that I had not expected.
The first one was from Anna, my great-granddaughter who lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is in first grade and had been up here for Christmas.
I had told the family about my sister Ruby Jean’s letter to Santa that Linda had found for me in the Toluca Star newspaper of 1936. I was 4 years old at the time. My sister asked Santa to bring me a Shirley Temple doll for Christmas.
Obviously Anna had listened closely to the story as I filled the family in about the letter. I told the family I did not get the Shirley Temple doll.
After Anna went back home, she visited an elderly lady across the street and told her all about her visit to Polo at Christmas. Anna told her about the letter to Santa and how her great-grandmother did not get the Shirley Temple doll for Christmas.
After hearing the story, this delightful lady across the street said to Anna, “I got a Shirley Temple doll for Christmas, my mother made all the clothes for it, and you can have it!”
Anna could hardly wait to call me and tell me the news. Anna said, “Great-grandma, I got your Shirley Temple doll!”
Santa works in mysterious ways.
I told Anna that the doll is very valuable and she needs to take very good care of it. Can you believe it, Santa waited almost 90 years to get that Shirley Temple doll into the family. I will be 94 in June!
The second phone call was from a person who I met almost 60 years ago and had not talked to in a while.
Three of us met at Sauk Valley Community College in 1968. Rita was from Sterling, Margaret was from Franklin Grove and I was from Polo. We had not known each other previously but met at Sauk Valley and we had not had any college before we headed for Sauk.
Rita became a nurse, Margaret became a businesswoman when she ended up owning a florist shop, and I became a teacher.
In those first few early classes we became good friends and would even get together outside of school. Margaret traveled around the country as her husband changed jobs and yet she always managed to connect up with a florist shop. Eventually they ended up in retirement back in Bridgeport, West Virginia where they had family. I would read of the jars and jars of canned goods Margaret and her husband would can from their truck garden.
All three of us managed to stay connected in some way. Then we all lost our husbands and our lives changed, along with health issues in retirement. This Christmas I did not hear from Margaret and I worried that something had happened to her. I needed to try and find her phone number. I could also call Rita but I did not seem to get either done.
This week the phone rang and it was Rita. It was so good to hear her voice and she had the latest news on Margaret. We chatted for a long time and it was so good to hear her voice.
After I hung up I sat there and reflected back on the memories of meeting each other in a class at Sauk Valley almost 60 years ago. Who would have thought that we would still be in touch with each other after all these years and yet we still are.
• Betty Obendorf is a retired teacher and volunteer for the Polo Historical Society.