Why Letters are Important

The more and more I look through Virginia's boxes the more and more I realize how cool of a women she is. Her art is absolutely beautiful!! It's strange to see pictures of her working on a piece of art that I have either seen or has been the inspiration for work that I have seen in churches. There are so many pictures of her work and the different stages that they went through. I am constantly impressed by her art, and I have been finding it harder and harder to select pieces to put the digital collection. Not because there isn't enough, but because I'm beyond impressed with everything and want to include it all. I can't wait to start putting pictures online so that other people can see the absolutely amazing pieces that I have been looking through.

While the pictures are extremely cool, I have started looking through the boxes that contains her different correspondences. They are very interesting and make Virginia an actual person. Realistically I know that she used to be a living, breathing, human being, but there is some disconnect when you are looking through boxes. Its hard to describe. You can look through photos all you want, but they are just photos. You don't know anything about the person behind them by just looking through brief moments of their life. Yeah I got how much she loved her husband, and a little bit of a sense of their relationship through the pictures. Yeah I saw how absolutely beyond words talented she is through her pictures. I saw the pride she took in her work. But I didn't know anything about her. Looking through her letters I am starting to see that though. I see how much she cared for everyone around her. I see the countless letters from her friends thanking Virginia for just randomly giving them a piece of work. The number of times I saw something along the lines of "I was surprised by a large mail package on my front steps this morning, and once I opened it I found one of your paintings. That was extremely kind of you to send that to me as a surprise!" And she never asked anything in return for those pieces. I see the letters from complete strangers telling her how her work inspired them and the kind words she sent back to them. I see the letters from priests thanking her for the art work that she did for their parishes and how they have inspired it's members. I see the love letters between her and her husband. A couple actually brought tears to my eyes too. They had a love that I thought only existed in Nicholas Sparks novels. I see the letter from a class of 2nd graders thanking her for the donation of a statue she gave to their church. I see the numerous ways that she touched people's lives. These letters have humanized her in such a profound way to me. I mean, grant it, I feel extremely creepy sometimes reading them, don't get me wrong, but they have added a whole other dimension to Virginia. I think these letters will help me create the story of her life in such a unique  way. As I am going through them, however, I feel as though I have to create some rules that I have to follow for which letters can go into the digital collection or not. The main one is to not put anything in that, if it was mine, I wouldn't want anyone else reading. Her letters with her husband are off limits then. They are absolutely beautiful, but I feel as though I am cheapening them in a way by putting their private thoughts and feelings on the internet. Also, any letter that speaks intimately about someone's family is out. I don't need to put letters that discuss personal events or problems of a family on the internet. I wouldn't want someone doing that to me after I'm dead, so I refuse to do it to her. Even with the letters that I take out, there is such a rich story to be told. Yet again, I cannot wait to go into work in the morning and continue exploring.