Lovely Letter of a Dying Age

I often get nice letters from readers, but this one really moved me. It's posted with permission:

Mr. Cowie,

My father worked at the Ford Motor Company Casting Plant in Brookpark OH.  My mother was a stay-at-home mom until she and Dad built their own home in 1950-51 in an out-lying suburb south of Cleveland.  She went to work at the local grocery chain to make ends meet and to finish
the house.  They struggled, but never were hopeless.

I was married one year out of high school in 1960.  My husband was a member of Local #38 IBEW.  He finished his apprenticeship our second year together.  We didn’t hurt financially, although things were tight at times; but I got to stay home with the kids.  I raised four children, kept a marriage together, voted Democrat, then buried my husband ten years ago at age 59.  I looked up and didn’t recognize the world around me.  Suddenly my ideas and assumptions were outdated.  I was a dinosaur.

I heard you interviewed on NPR and knew I had to read your book, Stayin’ Alive.  It is what I had been wishing for.

You explained it all.  You explained what happened to the Labor Movement.  You explained what happened to my Democratic Party.  You explained me to myself. (Turns out I’m actually New Left...should I be ashamed?) 

Thank you for your insight and your expertise.  This is a very valuable book.

Yours,

Marjorie Hertelendy in Grafton OH