It all started when my mom suggested I send periodic notes to my grandpa and grandma. At first it was Grandpa who was ailing, so the notes were meant to cheer him up.
Grandpa scared me a little when I was a kid. He was a little gruff. His humor was tongue-in-cheek, wry, the twinkle-in-your-eye sort. He was an imposing figure, a self-made man. Very wealthy, lots of kids, tons of grandkids. It was easy for me to get lost in the shuffle, I thought.
But he let me play his very fancy pipe organ when I was a teen, and that's something most of the grandkids weren't allowed to even touch.
He and my grandma encouraged creativity. They were the earliest supporters of my work, that I can remember.
They traveled all over the world, and their house was filled with treasures from fantastical lands. Grandpa George and Grandma Ruth hosted the most amazing parties -- I got to know my cousins so well they were more like siblings than cousins.
They gave so much to our families that sending notes seemed like a very simple way to give back. And I lived 90 minutes away -- too far to visit often, especially with little kids.
So I sent notes, cartoons of my kids. The cartoons were always, always true to life. Not one thing made up, not one word changed.
I didn't know at the time how much my notes would bring us together. When Grandma Ruth fell into the awful claws of dementia, I sent notes more frequently, to boost Grandpa. When Grandpa died, he was my best friend.
It took years before I could sift through the cartoons without crying. He had saved every single one, and upon his death his kids, my aunts and uncles, gave me a huge box filled to the top.
Eventually my kids catalogued the notes for me, laughing over each one.
I always thought it'd be neat to share the cartoons somehow, as a tribute to a great couple, a great friendship, and some of the funniest little kids who have ever walked this earth. This is that "somehow."
I won't redraw them.
Some are awkwardly drawn, some have many pages taped together for a sequential comic. Some are in color (yay!). Most are simply black ink on paper, scrawled quickly while on break at work or just before dashing out the door to pick up kids or drop off kids or do some other hectic thing.
They don't start in order on this blog, but eventually they might become a chronological effort.
This first cartoon is one of my favorites, one which I quote often.
Katie is now 21; these were drawn in 1992 on November 17.
Here we go:
