A letter to the husband she never could write
While he lived she was busy earning a living, and too shy to say thank you properly even once. Only after he went first and left her alone did she pick up a pencil at the literacy class at Beolgyo Library. Writing his name out carefully on the paper, Geum-rye Lee called aloud the name she had never once said that way in a lifetime.
My dear who went first: I never knew a single letter, so I never put a warm letter in your hand, and I was too shy to say a kind thank you. Only now do I hold a pencil and call your name.
— Geum-rye Lee (Beolgyo Library, Boseong)
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Say the thank-you you have been saving to the person still here to hear it.
SOURCE
National Literacy Education Center · 2023 National Adult Literacy Poetry Exhibition, Director's Award · Geum-rye Lee, Beolgyo Library, Boseong
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