My Aunt Peggy had a glorious whiskey voice—like Demi Moore. Unlike Demi, Peggy shared my DNA—plump from the word “go”—and oh, how I loved her!
She and her sister Suzanne were both nuts for the family genealogy. (I just spent 45 confused seconds wondering “what the hell?” First I thought it was “geology.” Peggy loved the family geology—like we came from the sedimentary layer. Then I hit my head and typed “geneography.” When the laptop objected to the spelling, I messed around with the “-neo” part of the word (was it “nio??”) until realizing the problem was in the back half. MAYBE I SHOULDN’T BE TYPING TODAY.)
Where was I? Right—genealogy. (Which, admit it, is a STRANGELY spelled word!)
Peggy loved the family history, as did her sister Suzanne. When Peggy died, I inherited five huge flip-top boxes filled with files and papers and scraps of tissue; it was bedlam. I spent the first months of the pandemic quarantine sorting through it all. It was cool, and I can assure you that you do not care at all. I’m good with that.
What was interesting was the common theme I saw. Peggy and Suzanne (and before them, their mother and grandmother) were forever writing to distant relatives to ask them what they knew about great-uncle Bob or someone. So I have maybe eighty or a hundred years’ worth of replies…
…and just about every single one begins “I’m sorry it took me so long to write you back.”
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, people were saying it. We all feel compelled to apologize all the time, and we always have. So my advice to you is: Don’t. Don’t do it. Don’t apologize for taking so long to get back to someone—whether you write them, email them, text them, yell from across the backyard fence. It’s dull and uninteresting and assumed. You’re writing NOW; that’s enough. Move on.
Who would make this point? Why? How about someone who hasn’t written a blog post in months?! And I refuse to apologize for writing now, despite having so little of interest to say! You would have loved my Aunt Peggy, though; she had an awesome voice!
This is not my Aunt Peggy. This is a "made you look" poached picture of Demi Moore. She has a great voice, too.
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