November 21, 1997
Envelope: the outside envelope from a phone bill.
Paper: pieces of the phone bill itself.
Ms (R. M.) Raynaud:
I do hope you'll put me
on the bank's Easter mailing
list - yep, I know its too too
late for Christmas.
Here's my address:
[what follows is half her childhood address, crossed out, replaced with most of her then-current address, except that she's put New Hope, PA -- then crossed out the PA and replaced it with an NY]
A.M.
November 22, 1997
Envelope: the payment envelope for a phone bill. A slip of paper has been taped to the inside so that Ray's address is visible.
Paper: a shred of a New York Times bill.
R.M.
Today on GMA, Paul
Simon says:
Bridge Over Troubled
Waters was
originally
conceived as
a tribute to
a drunk +
his moll.
Fancy that
A.J.
November 24, 1997
Envelope: a photograph print envelope (remember those?) folded over and taped down to letter proportions.
Contents: half of a picture from my wedding. Beaker's been cut out, except for the hand I'm holding and the end of his nose. Plus a negative strip; I think the three pictures are of me and her last dog, on the balcony of Nanna's apartment.
June 19, 1998.
Envelope: letterhead from ZZZ Hospital, which I didn't know she'd ever been in.
Paper: a yellowed "about the author" page from a Marion Zimmer Bradley novel.
R.M.
Take the number XXX train
to the end of the line.
(YYYth St.)
Then walk 1 block
west to ZZZ Hospital.
Ask for Me in
Ward 2 North
Love,
A.J.
The first two were written as she was heading for her big breakdown of '97, the beginning of the end, Beaker and me driving to New York on the middle of the night just before Thanksgiving when a neighbor called and told us she was freaking out, and then she was gone when we got there.
Ray had been refusing to speak to her for years by that time. He would get hang-up calls. I don't think she showed up at his door by then, but she still would only a little earlier; hanging on the buzzer, which was right on the street.
I don't know why I have these letters, even. He must have given them to me around that time. They resurfaced now that I'm cleaning out the closet in my home office. It's full of boxes packed for the big move (August 1998), but I need space for work clothes.
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