Dead Letter Office

One thing that I got really good at during my teenage years living with my dad was getting to the mail before he did.

You never really knew when a teacher was going to mail home an unsatisfactory notice or the City of Long Beach was going to send a follow up letter for a speeding ticket.

So I was always ready to pounce on the mail upon my arrival.

Now, I get my dad's mail everyday.

It wasn't as easy as it should have been. I went to his local post office first but then they just sent me to my local post office to send to submit the paperwork.

I'm sure it made a lot of sense to the soon to go on a shooting rampage but it didn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense to me.

Some of the mail was just ironic. Solicitation for life insurance and assistance with Medicare and Medicaid (no thank you).

And then there were the letters from different politicians and political groups. It was so strange to see in the same mailbox letters from Ted Kennedy and the NRA asking for donations to their political campaigns.

The bills started rolling in too. What was so strange is that every credit card he had was paid off the month before he died. There's one that has a positive balance of four bucks and some change.

The worst thing I think I've received was from a lawyer that was looking to represent our family so we could sue whoever was responsible for his death.

I'm not ready to sue the makers of single malt scotch so I put that letter in the recycle bin.

But what has really been amazing about my dad's mail is that it doesn't appear to be stopping.

Every day there is more mail. Another offer. Another solicitation

And now, 20 years later, I find myself once again opening up letters that I know he'll never see.

VW