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Reflections

by Katie Butler Johnson
R emember when most people kept in touch through end of his life. I remember how difficult those years were.

handwritten letters?
Sadly, those times are past.
These days, we hardly ever find a handwritten letter embedded Now I get to paint over that time with fresh memories of our
golden beginning.
in our bundles of mail. It’s just bills, magazines, newspapers,
and that ever-increasing stack of ads. Ever wonder what a handwritten letter might bring at auction?
I have. If it were a letter between world leaders, or perhaps a
Before computers, we used to take pen in hand to communicate love letter between notables, I’d guess it might bring a hefty
with each other. We’d share our thoughts and dreams - sum. I looked up which letter had sold for the most at auction.
one on one. Today, we get typed messages on various The answer: a letter written in 1953 from Francis Crick to
electronic screens. They’re no substitute for the personal his son Michael. It sold to an anonymous buyer on April 10,
touch of a handwritten letter. 2013 for $6,000,000! Why
Handwritten letters are one was it worth that much? And
of a kind creations that can be just WHO was Francis Crick?
savored for years. Well, Crick, together with
I’ve been doing a lot of that his colleague James Watson,
kind of savoring recently. discovered the DNA molecule.
You see, while cleaning out He wrote that letter to his son
the attic, I found a large box just weeks before announcing
containing all sorts of letters the DNA molecule discovery
my late husband sent to his to the world. In it, he told his
wide range of correspondents: son: “My dear Michael, Jim
his family, my family, friends, Watson and I have probably
teachers, business contacts, made a most important
“gals who came before me” discovery.” Then he went on to
and me. It also includes describe the working of DNA
responses written to him from and include a rough diagram
all those correspondents. of its structure.
The box doesn’t actually I can understand why Crick’s
hold the original letters he letter went for so much, but
sent. It holds carbon copies that doesn’t stop me from
of those. He wrote so many letters that he started carbon declaring my letters are worth so much more than that to me.
copying them early on so he’d remember what he said and not My take away from all this rambling is to encourage you,
repeat himself. His letters read like conversations and those for Valentine’s Day this year, to pen heartfelt letters to your
conversations are often humorous, definitely entertaining special people. Those letters will be gifts only you can give
and at times quite emotional. I’ve been eavesdropping on all that may very well outlast you.
those conversations between him and all his correspondents
– including me. Your letters probably won’t wind up at an auction house going
for millions, but they will wind up in the hands of those you
Remember that movie starring Christopher Reeves and Jane treasure and be considered by them to be... priceless. •
Seymour: “Somewhere in Time?” I feel like that when I read
his letters to me, like I’m a time traveler. The letters transport
me back to when I was a college student in New York and my Katie Butler Johnson
guy was in grad school in California. We wrote each other has written a beautiful
long letters nearly every day for more than a year. When I children's book, Amazing
hold his letters to me and read his words in his distinctive Things Came to Be, with
handwriting, I can hear his voice in my mind telling me, once proceeds going to various
again, how deeply I am loved. charities. Illustrations by
Not only have I been reading our letters, I’ve been reading all Amanda E. Wallace. Find it
of his other correspondence to and from his family, my family, on Amazon today!
his friends and those “gals who’d come before.” I have read
what he told his friends and old flames when he met me and
what he thought about this new girl. In a nutshell, I’ve been
reliving our beginning. He was very ill for many years at the

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