When talking to Michael yesterday, I realized that I have tons of fond memories of my younger cousin Noelle that I’d love to write down and capture, but that don’t fit into my current story project in most cases. Lately, I’ve resorted to regaling him with everything. I joked to him that perhaps I should write them all down.

Yet that offhand comment got me thinking. Why shouldn’t I?

So, I brainstormed this morning and decided that it’s the perfect idea. Her thirteenth birthday is coming up in January (four months) so if I get my butt going, I should be able to get it done by then. She’ll be entering her teenage years and she already has so much going on in family life as well as social life that no doubt is making her question herself. I’ve seen some of it in her MySpace status messages, and I hope that this might show her how much she means to me. Perhaps a start at growing her self worth?

My plan is to call it “Dear Noelle, — Love, Heather” and write a series of “letters” (Sidney Poitier anyone?). But not in the same way as Mr. Poitier. My goal isn’t to tell her about my life or to show her what I’ve learned or to tell her how those things can be applied to her. My goal is to tell her about her life, starting with the memories she won’t have kept, and how she has changed mine. To show her how very important she is to me as well as to give her a lasting memory book of her early life.

Let’s see if it works. I have no idea how long it will be, but I’ll start brainstorming everything in the days ahead. I’ll post the letters (password protected) as I write them, though with the same password as my story (so those of you reading that have access to this as well).