Something to cherish

Mom had told me a while back that she’d cleaned up the case of Dad’s old typewriter. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do with it, but he knew that Dad would be pleased at how well it cleaned up.

She said he typed all of his letters on it and used it often. As you can see, it’s an old Royal, and it’s a manual. I said if she was okay with it, I wouldn’t mind having it for the Retro Lounge. Not only is it a cool old typewriter, it was apparently a well-used and treasured thing of my Dad’s.

The thing is really heavy. If anyone ever breaks in here and goes all Annie Wilkes on me, I’ve got a Royal typewriter to bash her in the head with. I love that it’s turquoise and white—great retro colors that match the colors in the Retro Lounge. I’m not sure where I’ll put it, but I’ll find a spot, and I’m pleased to have it.

When we were at Mom’s today, I opened it up and was checking it out. For some reason, I’m fascinated by old typewriters. I guess I’m my father’s daughter! I took a typing class in 8th grade, and I learned on an electric. But we had a really old Royal manual—even older than Dad’s—at home that I often used to type reports for school. It still worked very well, although you had to really apply some force to the keys to get them to work. These things are almost works of art to me now.

Anyway, I opened it up and looked at it. There was a sheet of paper in there, and it looks like Dad had typed a few letters, probably just checking it to see if his old friend still worked well. A string of symbols and letters and then…

My name. The very last thing my Dad ever typed on his typewriter was my name.

My initial reaction was to smile and say, “Aww!” But as I thought about it a little more, I could feel myself becoming sad. I pushed those thoughts away.

For whatever reason, at that moment in time, I was in my Dad’s thoughts. I hope they were good thoughts, and not worried ones. That’s a reason to be happy, not sad.

I was going to cherish the typewriter already. That piece of paper with my name on it makes it even more precious to me, and the paper will remain in place.