Content of the Cards: Revealing both Receiver and Sender
In these cards, the focus moves away from Aunt Carol's composing practices (both painted and written), and refocuses on major events in my life, as the recipient of the greeting cards. Up to this point, the key life events acknowledged in the cards had been my birthdays, with the exception of an additional card for my high school graduation in 2002. However, in 2008 and 2009, my life events seemed to "speed up" and they also seemed to align with Aunt Carol's sense of a "life well-lived."
In the first card from 2008, Aunt Carol writes in reference to my graduation with my BA from Creighton University as well as my scholarship for starting the MEd program that summer. In the second card, her written text doubles as "happy birthday wishes" and an acknowledgement of my engagement. Also note, in these last few cards, she continues to use the postcard-style format, but she shrinks her handwriting so that she can fit longer messages into the same space.
In 2009, this narrative continues as she writes about the events she's heard about: my marriage and reception. Although the cards are charting the narrative threads of my life, Aunt Carol also includes a bit of commentary. She is reassured by my "traditional" life choices. In addition, she mentions her own impending major life change: moving. She was preparing to uproot from her home in Ohio to move to California to live with family. After she moved, I no longer received any hand-painted cards from her, but these last few cards offer a glimpse, a window, into both of our rapidly changing lives. For me, it felt like forward movement, making life changes (that would ultimately go under more drastic revision in the years to come). For Aunt Carol, she seemed to be turning back to her memories, her traditions, a nostalgia for times past--but always through her lively and quirky sense of seeing the world around her.