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K. Lindskoog: You Have Mail, A true Christmas story

The Lewis Legacy-Issue 80, Spring 1999 The C.S. Lewis Foundation for Truth in Publishing

WE WERE HAVING an extremely quiet Christmas day. Pete and Kathy were unable to fly cross country from New Jersey as hoped. Jon and Jen were heading for the beach in their RV for the weekend. (After a lifetime of Christmases with my mother, the most enthusiastic Christmas grandmother in the world, it was a good idea for Jon to be away at the beach, surfing in his wetsuit.)

No friends were able to visit that day, and I am bedfast, so we were home alone.

Great was our surprise when the doorbell rang at 12 noon and a postal worker was at the door asking John to sign for a package to me from Ohio. (Postage alone was marked $20, and we knew no one in Ohio.) Absolutely mystified, he brought it in and opened it at my bedside. Because E-mail is almost the only social life I have anymore, as John opened the package I joked, “Oh dear, I told him NOT to give away our secret to you!” I was alluding to a popular new film we had heard about called “You Have Mail,” the story of a secret E-mail romance.

I did not recognize the name on the nativity notecard inside. It was from Italy, and perfect for an empty 5″ by 7″ frame I happen to have. The note said “I trust this Turkish Delight will have the opposite effect of that intended in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, contributing to the life and warmth of your Christmas celebration.” There was a gorgeous two and a half pound box (a padded, decorative gift box) of Turkish Delight fresh from Turkey! It dawned on me that it was from a man in Ankara whom I had met very slightly in the MERELEWIS E-mail group. He had said he could send me some Turkish Delight when he was in the States for Christmas, and asked for my address.

He could have had no idea of how much this festive gift from afar would mean to us. I called him at the number on his card on 26 December to thank him and learned he is Papal Nuncio in Ankara, Turkey. We quickly got acquainted and became correspondents.