Dear Cole,

It will be a few years before you can read this, and then maybe a few more years before it means a lot to you, I know, but I feel compelled to write to you today, on my 66^th birthday. Let’s see. In 22 days, you will reach the ripe old age of six months. Can I say right up front that it’s amazing and wonderful having you in our lives? Already, the people around you (including Safta Laurie) can see a lot about the kind of person you’re going to grow up into. I can see that you’re curious, strong, good-natured, interested in how things work, and love to move, dance and jiggle. You have two loving and excellent parents, one of which happens to be my daughter. You have a sweet doggie brother, Sanka, who loves you and protects you, as well as a sweet doggie aunt/cousin (?), Whiskey, who also wants to make sure you’re okay at all times.

As your Grandpa Bruce – Saba Bruce if you prefer – I feel there’s so much I’d like to help teach you, not only about playing the piano and loving classical music (your mom will take care of teaching you to love country music), not only about baseball – the playing and watching thereof, the Brooklyn Dodgers, Duke Snider, and Sandy Koufax – but about appreciating all of the good things in life, hiking in the mountains, reading, writing, learning, and loving, the things that I have been blessed with. As to the loving, there’s no greater joy in life than being a parent, in my opinion, and so, somewhere in your future, I hope you are similarly blessed.

See you soon, Cole.

Love,

Grandpa Bruce