By Lissa Rovetch
Art by Amanda Morley
金羽菲 譯
音頻·圖文授權：Highlights
對遠方親人的思念，總讓人滿眼傷心景，無限相思淚。如何面對這樣的悲傷情緒？文中的亞莉桑娜通過親身經歷給我們提供了一個值得借鑑的好點子——製作一本「解憂」畫冊，或者叫做記憶畫冊。把和遠方親人相處的點滴回憶用圖畫和文字的形式記錄出來，製作成一本暖心的小冊子，你會在這個過程中慢慢消解自己的悲傷情緒，還能給遠方親人送去最美好的祝福和惦念，何樂而不為呢？
Dear Missing,
My grandparents have lived in a whole different state for as long as I can remember, so I』ve had a lot of experience as far as missing them goes. I usually get to see them only a couple of times a year. But they ended up canceling their summer trip last month because Gran had to have knee surgery.
「It’s no fair!」 whined my little brother, Tex. 「Poppy was going to take me fishing.」
「Sorry, kiddo. That’s just the way the ball bounces,」 said my dad, using one of his zillion old-fashioned sayings that all pretty much mean 「Relax, because there’s nothing you can do to change this particular situation.」
「And what about the zoo?」 grumbled my little sister, Indi. 「Gran and I were going to have a special zoo day, just the two of us!」
「There will be lots more summers for special zoo days,」 said my mom. 「How about, for now, we give Poppy and Gran a call?」
While Tex and Indi talked on the phone, all kinds of memories started playing in my head like a movie: spotting seals from the ferryboat, riding bikes through Golden Gate Park, baking Gran’s world-famous cookies, and putting on silly magic shows with Poppy. For some weird reason, those happy memories just made me unbelievably sad. I started missing my grandparents so much that I wanted to cry.
「Here you go,」 my mom said, handing me the phone. 「It’s your turn to talk to Poppy and Gran.」
「Um, I can’t talk right now,」 I told her.
「Why not?」 my mom asked with a squinchy-upper-eyebrow look.
「Because I can’t!」 I said, and suddenly I was running down the hall.
Those words and the whole running-away-from-the-phone thing surprised even me. I ended up on my bed with my fluffy cat named Cow.
Why in the world did you run away like that? Cow meowed loudly.
「I didn’t want to cry on the phone,」 I sniffled while scratching his ears.
I’m sure Gran and Poppy would have understood, Cow purred.
「Yes, but they already have enough to worry about with Gran’s knee troubles,」 I said. 「I want to make Gran happy, not sad!」
Oh, I should probably mention that Cow doesn’t exactly speak in people words. But it just so happens that I’m fluent in cat talk. Which is the reason I knew exactly what he meant when he hopped on my desk and sat in a basket of markers.
「Hey, good idea!」 I said. 「I』ll make Gran a get-well-soon card.」
I started drawing pictures of all those fun memories I was talking about earlier (you know—riding bikes and baking cookies), and before long, my get-well-soon card had turned into a get-well-soon book! For some reason, drawing pictures of our good times together made me feel better. Plus, I could totally imagine Gran’s sparkly smile when she received the book in the mail. When I was done, I kissed my wise cat on his little pink nose and went to give my grandparents a call.
「I made you a present,」 I told Gran. 「Do you want it to be a surprise, or do you want to know what it is?」
「Hmm,」 she said. 「I think I』d like to know right this minute!」
So I described all the different pictures in the memory book. And as I did, we remembered together.
「That seal was so funny,」 said Gran. 「Do you remember how he waved to us as our ferryboat passed by?」
I giggled. 「And Poppy joked that we should invite him to join us for lunch! Oh, Gran, I miss you so much.」
「Oh, my little lambykins, do I ever miss you!」 Gran said. 「And I can’t wait to get your special memory book in the mail.」
So, dear Missing, as you can probably tell, I ···
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