#24 Pick a small object to be given one day to your great-grandchild.  Write a letter to that child explaining why you have chosen this object.  

Dear great-grandchild,
I never thought that I would have children.  By some miracle I did.  Then to go on to become a grandmother and a great-grandmother was nothing less than pure bliss.  As you get older and your parents talk about Grandma Heather it will probably be difficult to remember me.  I understand this feeling.  My middle name, Lena, came from my great-grandmother.  I have no memories of her. But growing up, I would hear stories about her.  I guess I was a very fussy baby and would cry all the time.  Grandma Lena, the story goes, was the only person who could calm me down.

One of the stories that you probably heard about me was how I liked to collect squirrels.  I would get asked all the time, “why squirrels?”  Here is the explanation: After I graduated from Bethany I transferred to Gustavus Adolphus College.  The campus was covered with many beautiful trees. (This was before a tornado destroyed many of them in 1997) These trees were filled with many squirrels. One night as I was leaving the dining hall, I noticed a squirrel perched on top of the garbage can and it was eating an ice cream sandwich.  It wasn’t just eating it.  The squirrel was holding the ice cream like he was a person.  He was even using his tiny paws to peel away the paper.  I stood there watching the squirrel and I thought, “any animal that loves ice cream has got to be worth noticing.” I told many people this story but it piqued the interest of my friend Sue.  Sue and I decided that we were going to keep tabs on the squirrels.  We even talked about naming them. Sue and I started leaving squirrel information in each other’s mailboxes.  One article talking about how squirrels had short attention spans so Sue said that squirrels spent their lives thinking, “Where did I put that nut???”  Sue was an art major and she used her creative eye to make me a squirrel ornament.  She called it a “Burgundy Squirrel-shaped medallion,” this was a play on the words of a David Wilcox song that we both listened to constantly.  My collection of squirrels grew in the hundreds but it all started with this wire squirrel.  I hope that you treasure it as much as I did.

Love,
Grandma Heather Lena

David Wilcox’s Lyrics to Burgundy Heart-Shaped Medallion
If I had a spell of magic
I would make this enchantment for you
A burgundy heart-shaped medallion
With a window that you could look through
So that when all the mirrors are angry
With your faults and all you must do
You could peek through that heart-shaped medallion
And see you from my point of view

#25  Describe yourself in the third person-your physical appearance and personality-as though you were a character in a book.  

When Heather Bakke talked, people listened.  This had not as much to do with the importance of her words, but the volume of her speech.  This is not to say that she didn’t have important things to say, they were just buried in a thick layer of joking and Simpson’s quotes.  After hearing her cackle a block away you would catch up to her and be startled that such a booming voice came out of such a small person.  She was short and stocky but the look suited her.  Heather always joked that “smiling was her favorite.”    She was always smiling.  Unless she was thinking.  If Heather was thinking, she would get a pained expression on her face.  Many times when she was deep in thought people would ask her if she was o.k.  Thankfully, the smiling won out.  When Heather smiled you couldn’t see her eyes.  This was a Bakke trait.  Their family photos contained only glimpses of eyeballs but lots of cheeks and smiles. When you could see her eyes, you noticed that they were hazel green.  She had friendly eyes, except when she was glaring at you with her “teacher look.”  This look could send a shiver down your spine.  Heather’s auburn hair was starting to gray, giving up the fact that even if she wished that she was still 19, she was in fact in her forties.  Her fashion sense?  Two words: paisley Birkenstocks.  Heather could be the life of the party but had it in her to be     quiet too.