ALINE ALEXANDER NEWMAN
TURIN, NEW YORK
I love snail mail. So when a handwritten envelope arrived bearing an unfamiliar return address, I was intrigued. “What’s this about?” I wondered as I opened it.
The sender, Margaret Ratcliff, wrote that she enjoyed my story about a long-lost relative. Called “A Poignant Discovery,” that had fueled my family research. Margaret, a “lifelong collector and lover of books,” recognized Earl’s name. Checking her own bookshelves, she not only found that title, but she wanted to give it to me! Why? “When I was growing up,” Margaret explained, “my mother kept a plaque on the wall that read, ‘Kindness matters.’”
