Dear Margaret,
Now that you don’t have everybody nagging at you six ways from Sunday about everything under the sun, maybe you’ll have time to read a little letter of thanks.
This might not mean that much to you since I’ve only lived in Jackson for fifteen years, but whenever I go to the Welty Library, I see your name on the dedication plaque near the door and the date—February 10, 1986—and I think how remarkable it is that you served on the city council for almost four decades. Now, I’m just a hillbilly hack and a lot of people are probably going to jump on me because they don’t think it’s my place to say so, but I think it sheds a bad light on the people of Jackson that nobody has given you a proper send-off after all your years of public service. Oh, I heard they had some little piddling thing in chambers at the city hall, but back where I come from we’d prop you up in a red Cadillac convertible, tote you around the town square a time or two and feed you a nice chicken dinner. Of course, you’d probably have to listen to every pompous ass in town say something, too, but God knows you’re used to that.
I also want to thank you for being a good neighbor. You and Al always stop by the garden on the corner when you see me out in it (more often than not with my fanny in the air) to ask me about what I have growing and how I did this or did I want something y’all had. It tickled me to pieces when Al told me you’d asked him what that white fluffy stuff was I had growing in the big concrete bowl. He said you’d probably never seen cotton growing up close because you’re a city girl, and don’t you fuss at him for telling me, either; four out of five people who pass by the garden in the fall ask the same thing. You both have always had a kind word, and that means a lot to someone with no family in a city full of strangers.
Thank you, Margaret, and I’ll get around to bringing you some zinnias once they get good and started. I planted that cactus kind this year!
With much fondness and gratitude,
Jesse Lee
