In this time of many losses, we find gratitude for the spirit we've found in the hearts of friends and kind strangers.
Before you read these Thanksgiving letters, which are just some of the hundreds we received for this annual package, I would like to add my own words of gratitude.
The Union-Tribune's Currents section received far more Thanksgiving letters than could be printed in its annual package. But we wanted to share the others with you as well. Here they are, with our thanks to the senders:
I am thankful for a gift from someone who died this year.
On the weekend after Easter, my Aunt Barbara's chest was opened up, her failing lungs removed and, in a miracle of medicine, a healthy set attached. These donated lungs gave this wonderful woman, who is just six years older than I am, her second wind.
Our family is the Waltons of California, and Thanksgiving is our high holiday. Each year, four generations of us arrive at a house outside a small town in Northern California, the gravel on the long driveway popping beneath our cars' tires. There were 64 of us last year, joining hands around rows of tables crowded into a cleaned-out, two-car garage, and giving thanks for our blessings.
This year, we will give thanks for Aunt Barbara's new lungs. Except we know that they aren't really new. And we know that somewhere else, another family table is one person short.
As I read the letters submitted by so many of you for today, I was struck by how our gratitude is often shaped by people and events outside of our control ... families and friends who love us despite our flaws, everyday heroes who make the pain of fires a little more bearable and the restorative kindness of strangers when we are in need.
This is our chance to say thank you.
