previous letters
Several times a year we post a letter to Noah. Here are some of them.
Dear Noah,
Sorry it's been so long since we wrote! I don't have a great excuse, except that things have been very busy
this year. We'll try to write again on your birthday.
Of course, there's some news to report. Last time I wrote, I told you that your Uncle Ben had married the
woman who is now your Aunt Catherine. I can now tell you that you have a new Cousin Adam!!! I'll put a
picture or two of him in the gallery. He's a sweetheart, and it's great to see Uncle Ben being a father. He's
done really well with it.
There have been some job changes, too. Uncle Michael left his post at the Department of Commerce and
now works at a private company. Uncle Ben left his job on Capitol Hill, and also now works at a private
company.
Your Cousin Jack likes his new school (this is his second year there), and is still a serious soccer player.
He broke his wrist recently during a game, but it has healed and he's back on the field. Your Cousin
Caitlyn plays hockey, and has become an amazing cook! We marvel at what she can do in the kitchen.
Your Grandma and I are enjoying life, except not getting to see you. We took a cruise in Alaska this
summer, which was a lot of fun. We still have our church jobs, and love seeing Jack, Caitlyn, and
Adam.
More soon (I promise...).
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY!!! It's hard to believe you're already 17. You will be able to vote in the next presidential election!
We're assuming you've been driving all over the place this year. How do you like it? Is Sean driving too? We hope you're getting to do something fun on this special day, and that you have cool plans for Christmas.
In our last letter, we mentioned your Uncle Ben's girlfriend, Catherine, and said you might want to get used to her being mentioned. Well, in October she became your Aunt Catherine, as she and your Uncle Ben got married!!! She's awesome, and they're both very happy. Hopefully, you'll get to meet her soon.
There's not a lot of other news. Your Uncle Michael has a very important job. He is Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Commerce. It's a department with over 50,000 employees, and Michael is sort of #3! Your cousin Jack has switched schools to a place called St. Anselm's Abbey, and is doing really well there. He's also playing soccer almost nonstop, and is very, very good. Your cousin Caitlyn is a marvel who can do anything! She's the life of every party, and is very close to your Grandma.
Grandma and I are still doing fabulously well. Both of us have part-time church music jobs that keep us busy, but we love it. It's going to keep us busy at Christmas, though!
By the way, I should point out that day after tomorrow (December 22nd) would have been your mother's 45th birthday.
Let us take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
Wow, it's hard to believe you're already 16! Have you done anything about learning to drive yet? Will you be getting a car? We remember when your mom and your Uncle Michael and Uncle Ben started to drive. It turns out your Grandma is a terrific driving teacher (I don't have the patience for it). She's also good at teaching kids to ride a bike. She's taught Jack and Caitlyn to ride their bikes in the past few years, and I won't be surprised if when they get to be your age she is asked to teach them to drive.
I hope you're doing something fun for your birthday. The pandemic is probably still limiting what you can do, but it's likely you can do some things you couldn't do last year.
Here, things are going great. We're both still loving retirement, and staying healthy and comfortably busy. Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, Uncle Ben, and your cousins Jack and Caitlyn are also doing well. You should probably also get used to hearing about your Uncle Ben's girlfriend, Catherine. We've gotten to spend a good bit of time with her, and are thrilled to have her around. She's awesome!
By the way, I should point out that day after tomorrow (December 22nd) would have been your mother's 44th birthday.
Let us take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
It's finally Spring, and the weather here on the East Coast is getting nicer (though I think I saw recently that you had snow!). Grandma and Grandpa have both retired, and are settling in to a new lifestyle. Grandma walks a lot, gets together with friends, works in the garden, and is involved in several church activities. Grandpa is currently playing organ for a church, does a little yardwork, walks (though not as much as Grandma), has dinner with friends, and sometimes takes a nap!
But the big thing that's been happening is that Grandma has spent every other week with your cousins, Jack and Caitlyn. Initially, they were both doing remote school. Now, Caitlyn is back in school, but Jack's only in school every other week, so they need someone to be at the house when he's doing remote learning. Grandma to the rescue!
Have you been getting outside more? Are you back in school, or still doing remote learning? Last night Grandpa had a vivid dream of meeting with you. Hopefully, that'll be the case soon. A couple of family pictures have been added to our photos. They were taken at Easter.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
In our last letter we said we hoped these strange coronavirus times would be over by the next time we wrote to you, but here we are at Thanksgiving and we're still living with it, aren't we? Are you and Sean going to school in person, or are you learning from home? Your cousins Jack and Caitlyn are doing something sort of in the middle. Their schools are only teaching online, but for a few weeks Jack and Caitlyn are going to a program at your Aunt Jess's school, where they work in "pods", so they have online learning but also some amount of personal interaction with other kids. They also regularly go to the park down the street from their house to play with friends. They love riding their bikes, and over Thanksgiving learned how to ride a hoverboard!
For Thanksgiving, your Uncle Ben and his friend Catherine came to visit us (they also brought Ben's dog, Penny). Michael, Jess, Jack, and Caitlyn stayed home because they've all been around so many other people, but it was fun seeing your Uncle Ben, and meeting Catherine.
In spite of the coronavirus, have you had a good year in school? Are you getting out to exercise regularly? Jack is still playing some soccer, so he's getting his exercise.
We don't yet know what Christmas will be like. I suspect either that your Uncle Ben will come here, or perhaps that Grandma and I will go to visit your Uncle Michael and his family, but we'll see. As I said in my last letter, these are strange times we're living in. We're doing OK, though, and both tested negative for COVID last week. I hope the same is true for you and your family. Take care of yourself, and we hope to see you again someday soon.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
These are strange times we're living through, aren't they? Here in Delaware we can only go out for "essential tasks", like going to the grocery and the drugstore. I think you are under similar restrictions. Are you getting outside to exercise? We get out for a walk on most days. It's good to get some fresh air.
It must feel odd being home-schooled for the rest of the year. Hopefully, your teachers are giving you plenty of work to do, and your mommy and daddy are able to help you with it.
This is the time of year when we write and give you updated pictures of your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, Cousins Jack and Caitlyn, and Uncle Ben. They always come to Delaware for Easter, but this year aren't able to because of the coronavirus restrictions, so I don't have any new pictures for you. Once we're able to be with them again I'll post a new picture. Fortunately, we've gotten to FaceTime with them. They're doing well learning from home, and always seem to be in good moods. They get to the park every day to run around and play.
Hopefully, by the next time we write all this will be over and life will be back to normal. Until then, take care of yourself, try to get some exercise, and keep up with your school work. Things will get better.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
********
Dear Noah,
Happy 14th birthday, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!! We hope you've gotten to enjoy all those days. Did you get some nice gifts?
Here, as usual, we got to celebrate the holidays with the rest of your family. Uncle Ben came up from DC to spend a couple of days before Christmas, and your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and cousins Jack and Caitlyn came up to spend parts of 3 days with us after Christmas. It's always fun to spend Christmas with Jack and Caitlyn, and to watch them open their presents. This year there was a bit of a theme to their gifts - they got games. So we spent a good bit of time playing the games they were given. Great fun. We also got to watch Jack ride his new bike, which he got from his Nanna. How we wish we could spend the holidays with you as well.
So are you looking forward to anything about being a 14-year-old? Clearly you're a teenager now!
And now we start 2020! This is the year your Grandma will retire and begin a new phase of life. She is very anxious to be retired.
However you spent it, we hope you very much enjoyed your birthday, Christmas, and New Year's.
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
We hope you've had a good start to your school year. Perhaps you and Sean are in the same class. That would be fun. We also hope you had a good summer, and got to do some fun things and go on some fun trips.
Here things are going well. Grandma continues to love working in her yard and garden, and Grandpa has started to play organ again after having retired from it a year ago.
As usual, your cousins Jack and Caitlyn are busy and fun to be around. Jack is on a traveling soccer team. We got to watch them play in a tournament this season, where Jack scored. He loves his soccer.
Caitlyn is a bundle of energy, and still loves her arts and crafts.
But the big news from them is that Jack and Caitlyn, along with your Uncle Michael and Aunt Jess, went on a vacation to Iceland! It was Jack and Caitlyn's first time outside the country, and they had a wonderful time. I've added a couple of pictures to the slide show. They saw geysers, waterfalls, and an ice cave (that's where Jack is in the picture I included).
Then recently Grandpa, Uncle Michael, Uncle Ben, and Jack went to a DC United game. This is the second year we've gone for Jack's birthday. It's lots of fun.
Finally, this is Grandma's last year to work! She plans to retire next summer. This summer she took what's called a "sabbatical," which means that the school gave her a few months off work. She had a great time, including a trip to Nova Scotia (which is in Canada). It really made her look forward to her retirement.
That's the news from here..
As always, we love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
********
Dear Noah,
We hope you've had a fun Spring, and a good Easter. Here we had most of the family at Grandma's house for Easter. Your Aunt Jess couldn't join us, but Uncle Michael, Uncle Ben, and Cousins Jack and Caitlyn were there.
The big news for Easter was that Caitlyn learned to ride a bike! Grandma's the best at teaching kids to ride a bike, and (as she did with Jack) she taught Caitlyn. Once we figured out that it was easier to learn on Jack's bike she picked it right up and was riding like a pro in no time. She also just made a beautiful piece of art. She's quite the budding artist! We've put a picture of it in the slide show on Jack and Caitlyn's page of the website. We also put a picture of them on Grandma's porch on Easter.
This weekend we're going to a soccer tournament Jack's team is playing in. They have 2 games on Saturday. If they win they play more games over the weekend. We love going to watch him play. Jack loves his soccer! He also likes to watch the DC United team play.
What have you been up to? Do you play any Spring sports? We hope you've had a good school year, and that you have some fun plans for this summer.
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
I'm sure it's cold and snowy there in Michigan, here in the beginning of March. I'll bet you and Sean do lots of sledding, skiing, or building snowmen.
We're only a couple of weeks from the beginning of Spring, though, and here in Delaware we're ready for it! It's been an especially cold Winter for this part of the country.
Speaking of Winter, since you live in Michigan I'm guessing you play lots of winter sports, like hockey and basketball. Do you ski or skate? Your cousins Jack and Caitlyn are learning to skate like their Mommy (who played hockey in college), and Jack's taking hockey lessons. He also played on a basketball team this winter, and on a futbal team.
Since Spring is around the corner, I hope you have lots of special activities planned. And of course Spring is the time for sports like baseball, tennis and soccer. I hope you get to play something in the Spring.
Grandma is always busy with her church and her school, and Grandpa is always busy with his church and the helicopter program he works on. Still, we find time to have fun!
As always, if you read this and want to be in touch, either click on the "Contact Us" button on the home page, or go to the "Contact Us" link at the top of this page and send us a message. We'd love to hear from you!
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
WOW, TODAY'S NOAH'S 13th BIRTHDAY!!! You're officially a teenager! Do you feel any different? Are you planning a big birthday party? Happy Birthday from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Ben, Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, Cousin Jack, and Cousin Caitlyn.
Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Did you have family at your house or did you go somewhere else? We had everyone at Grandma's house. It was a lot of fun, and your cousins Jack and Caitlyn entertained us all!
But now it's almost time for Christmas! What have you asked for this year? Do you have traditions you follow every Christmas, like when you open presents, or what kind of food you eat?
Your Uncle Ben spends his Christmas here in Delaware. Your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and Cousins Jack and Caitlyn spend one Christmas here, then the next Christmas at Aunt Jess's mother's house, where they'll be this year. On their way to New York (where Aunt Jess's mother lives) they're going to stop here on December 22nd for us to give them their presents, so we'll get to see them. It wouldn't be Christmas without them!
I've put in a couple of pictures I thought you'd like. Your Grandma is a great bicycle-riding teacher. She taught Jack to ride a year or two ago (I've included a picture of him riding a bike), and this year started to teach Caitlyn to ride. I've also included a picture of Grandma working with Caitlyn.
Wherever you spend your holiday, we hope you have a great time, and get the presents you asked for.
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
It's finally Spring here! This has been a cold and snowy Winter in Delaware. Have you had a lot of snow there? Is it finally starting to feel like Spring there as well?
We had a fun Easter with your cousins Jack and Caitlyn, your Aunt Jess, and your Uncles Michael and Ben. Jack and Caitlyn especially enjoy the annual Easter egg hunt behind Grandma's house. What do you do for Easter?
It's also getting close to the end of your school year. Has it been a good school year for you? Did you like your teacher? Were you and Sean in the same class this year? Your cousins Jack and Caitlyn had very good years. Next year they'll be going to the same school, which will make life much easier on your Aunt Jess and your Uncle Michael. I'm sure Jack and Caitlyn will like going to school together.
We hope you have some nice vacation plans for this Summer. School is fun, but being out of school is just as much fun, right?
As always, we love you and miss you very much. We hope you are having a good Spring and that you have a good Summer.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
WOW, Noah is 12 years old already! It seems like just a few years ago that we were at the hospital and you were being born. We remember it like it was yesterday, watching your dad come down the hall giving the "TOUCHDOWN!" sign to us, tell us you'd been born and were well. You've grown up so fast! So first, happy birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Harney!
Are you and Sean looking forward to Christmas this year? What have you asked for? Where are you going to spend the holidays? Are you glad to have a few days away from school? Grandma gets to take next week off, and she's looking forward to it very much.
Speaking of next week, your Uncle Michael and Aunt Jess are celebrating their 10-year anniversary by taking a trip, and leaving your cousins Jack and Caitlyn with us in Delaware. I'm sure we'll have a very busy time, since both Jack and Caitlyn are FULL of energy!
You should also know that today (December 22nd) would have been your mother's 40th birthday. Just as we miss you every day, we miss her every day as well.
We hope you're having a good week and that you have a really fun week next week.
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*********
Dear Noah,
You should be through with the school year and beginning to enjoy your summer by now! We hope you have some fun plans. As Grandma mentioned in an earlier letter, she's going to Ghana (a country in Africa) soon. She is starting to get excited about the trip, especially since neither one of us have ever been in Africa!
Right before she leaves, your cousins Jack and Caitlyn will be in Delaware for a week. Caitlyn will be going to "Grandma's Camp" (the camp they have at Grandma's school in the summer), and Jack will be going to a different camp, since he's now too old to go to Grandma's Camp. It's always fun having them around, especially when they can stay for a whole week.
They were also here at Easter, along with your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and Uncle Ben. The picture below is of the family on Easter Day.
Everyone was also at a wedding a few weeks ago, as your Cousin Ronnie got married. Ronnie is the youngest of three girls in her family, and they're all now married! It was a wonderful and Beautiful occasion.
We hope you and Sean are doing well, have some fun things planned for your summer, and perhaps are taking an exciting trip somewhere. We'll write again after the summer is over.
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
Wow, 11 years old! It has gone by so, so fast! We clearly remember you being born. Your dad came to the end of the hall at the hospital and gave the universal "Touchdown!" sign to tell us everything was good. We got to hold you a few minutes later; one of the best moments of our lives.
There's a second birthday to remember, though. Your mother would have been 39 years old on December 22nd. We love and miss her every day, but she left us the greatest possible gift - you!
As Christmas approaches, things are starting to come together. Your Uncle Ben is already here, and your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and cousins Jack and Caitlyn will arrive Saturday. How we wish you could be here as well, but we're sure you're having a great time wherever you are.
So what do you want for Christmas? It's less than a week away, you know...
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
********
Dear Noah,
This is Grandma writing today. I wanted to give you the latest news. When your cousins, Jack and Caitlyn, visited last week, I taught Jack to ride his bike! He doesn't get to ride at home very much because he lives in the city and doesn't have a good place to ride. Here in Delaware, we have lots of space for riding! He was riding on his own in about 20 minutes. I was very proud of his quick progress. Caitlyn also learned to skip recently. They love to look at pictures of you and always ask how you're doing.
I am going on a special trip called a "pilgrimage" this summer. I will be visiting Ghana! I will have a chance to see some schools there, as well as the places where many slaves were put on ships bound for North America a couple of hundred years ago. It is important to see how other people live and to see all the ways that we can help them and learn from them. I will be sure to take lots of pictures.
I hope you and Sean are doing well. How is school going? Are you playing any sports? Grandpa and I think about you and pray for you always.
Love,
Grandma & Grandpa
*******
Dear Noah,
What did you and Sean do for Thanksgiving? Whatever it was, I hope you ate lots and lots of turkey!
We went to Washington, DC to have Thanksgiving dinner with your Uncle Michael and Aunt Jess, cousins Jack and Caitlyn, your Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jess's mother and Aunt Jess's mother's friend. It was a lot of fun.
After that, we drove to our cabin in the woods of Pennsylvania, where we had a day or two of quiet. We also saw snow for the first time this year, though I'll bet you have snow there already too! The picture below is of a fire we had in our outdoor fireplace one night when we were there (those are your Grandma's feet in the picture!).
So what do you want for Christmas? It's not that far away, you know...
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
While summer doesn't end for another week or so, it probably feels like summer is over, now that you're back in school. We hope you and Sean had a wonderful summer, and are enjoying school so far. Are you in the same class?
Your cousin Caitlyn is now 3 years old, and your cousin Jack is 6 years old. They both had birthdays this summer. Grandma and I spent a fun weekend with them (and your Uncle Michael and Aunt Jess) at a lake in Pennsylvania recently. It's always fun spending time with them.
This weekend, Grandma is in Washington, DC helping your Uncle Michael with them, since your Aunt Jess is away for the weekend. I'm sure Grandma is having a wonderful time, but she'll be tired when she gets home!
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
Is it as hot there as it is here? I don't like really hot weather, and it is REALLY hot here in Delaware this week!
In my last letter, I told you Grandma had received her Doctorate recently, so she's now "Dr. Harney"! As a reward for all the work she did, she wanted to go on a European River Cruise to celebrate. There is a very good company called Viking River Cruises - maybe you've seen their ads on TV. The cruise she chose started in Paris, France, then went down 3 rivers in Germany, ending in Prague, Czech Republic.
It was a wonderful trip. We spent 2 days in Paris, and were there during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, so the place was very excited and busy. We visited the famous Eiffel Tower, which was just a block from our hotel. They had a huge soccer ball hanging from it, which they put up for the soccer tournament!
We then spent 8 days cruising on German rivers, seeing castles, very old churches, houses, and vineyards everywhere! It was beautiful.
The trip ended in Prague, which was also beautiful. We got to go into a palace. It was the biggest, most beautiful house I think I've ever been in!
I hope you get to go to Europe some day and see the old houses, castles, and churches. It's very different from the United States. I have put 3 pictures of the trip below. Enjoy!
We hope you are having a wonderful summer and enjoy being out of school for a while.
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
It's finally Memorial Day Weekend! Do you have something fun planned? Perhaps a trip somewhere? Grandma is going to Pennsylvania to kayak with your Aunt Jeanne and Aunt Judi. Grandpa is staying home to sing at church on Sunday, but will have fun working on a book he's writing.
The biggest event here is that Grandma got her Doctor of Ministry degree in Educational Leadership! She has been working on it for 3 years. The picture below shows her getting her diploma. We're all very proud of her, of course. Uncle Ben, Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, Aunt Jeanne, and Grandpa were at her graduation about a week ago. She is very happy to be done, and looking forward to having more time to relax!
Uncle Michael had his 36th birthday yesterday (May 26th) as well. Next will be Grandpa (June), then Jack (July) and Caitlyn (August). It's a busy summer, isn't it?
We hope you have a wonderful summer and enjoy being out of school for a while.
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*******
Dear Noah,
We hope you had a fun Easter and are enjoying Spring so far! We had a delightful Easter, and while your Uncle Ben was busy in Washington, DC, your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and Cousins Jack and Caitlyn came to Delaware to enjoy the day with us. While they were here, they had a fun Easter egg hunt, we had a nice lunch with them, Aunt Jess's mother (Bonnie), and her friend, Gary. We also took some pictures, which are below. You guys grow up so fast!
We are enjoying better weather now, and I'm sure you are glad to see the snow gone for another year. We wish you were here, and look forward to seeing you again one day.
We love you and miss you very much.
Grandma and Grandpa Harney
*****
Dear Noah,
You might have heard that the East Coast got a huge snow storm this weekend, named "Jonas". Delaware was right in the middle of it, as was Maryland, where your Uncle Michael, Aunt Jess, and Cousins Jack and Caitlyn live. I think they got about 2 feet of snow, and we got about 18 inches, so it's plenty to shovel!
Lucky for everyone, Michael and Jess had cleared their driveway early, because last night as he was getting into bed, your cousin Jack fell and hit his head on the radiator! They had to take him to the hospital where he got 5 stitches, but they say he handled it like a champ.
My singing group was also supposed to give a big concert today, but it had to be canceled because of the storm. Instead, Grandma and I have spent the weekend reading, writing, and watching TV. Below are 2 pictures Grandma took today.
I hope you have some good weather there and enough snow to play in, but not so much that you can't go anywhere!
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma & Grandpa
*****
Dear Noah,
Happy 10th birthday, and Merry Christmas!!!
It's hard to believe you're now 10 years old! I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Ben were in the waiting room at the hospital, while your Mommy and Daddy were in the room where you were being born. Shortly after you were born, your Daddy came out and gave the universal "TOUCHDOWN" sign, signaling to us that you were here and doing well. It was the happiest day of our lives.
Just like your Grandma (whose birthday is December 16th) and your Mommy (whose birthday is December 22nd), you have a birthday right on top of Christmas. Grandma always tells me she doesn't care what gifts I give her for her birthday, but to NOT wrap them in Christmas paper! But this is a big presents time for you, isn't it?
We hope you have a wonderful 10th birthday and a Merry Christmas!
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma & Grandpa
*******
Dear Noah,
Grandpa and I went on an amazing vacation to Idaho in August. We visited the Sawtooth Mountains where we hiked, rode horses and went white water rafting. Grandpa mostly liked to sit on the porch and read!
Here are some pictures from our trip.
We will be writing to you this way from now on. You will get our letters faster this way!
We love you and miss you very much.
Love,
Grandma & Grandpa