Dear Holden, this is something you would like about the world I live in.

My grandparents on my mom's side, Alan and Marsha, are very intelligent. My grandfather is my favorite relative, and one of my favorite people. Alan is a World War II veteran, and he retired a few years ago from being a top designer at Tiffany's. He is very cute, and he has a few passionate interests. Alan wears a hat every day--like you and your hunting hat. Usually it's a fedora, but sometimes he wears his grey beret. He also dresses very classy, unlike everyone else today—he always wears a button-down shirt and khakis, and unless it's summertime, he wears a vest and/or sweaters. He wears thick glasses and a neatly trimmed, medium-length beard. Actually, he doesn't really have a chin: something is off with his jaw. Anyway, he keeps up his appearance, even though his skin cancer recently acted up again. He loves gardening and is very deliberate about his dahlias. Every day he walks down the street to get the paper, and he misses his dog, Misty, very much, since she died several months ago. He used to feed Misty a hard-boiled egg every day with her supper. His jokes have always been the same, the purple cow joke or “boi-oi-oing”, the Mars bars song, his lack of hair on the top of his head. He is very much set in his ways—just like you, Holden.

My grandmother Marsha, his wife, had a stroke four years ago. Alan has been taking care of her ever since. She's still fully functional, don't get me wrong, she walks and talks and cooks and everything. But certain things are not so normal--most of her moments are "senior moments," and she's not supposed to bend over because that could mess up the blood clot in her brain, but she bends over anyway. Alan has been there to stop her from bending over, and to stay by her side. He was the one who came home from a walk to find her lying inert after having her stroke. He lost about twenty pounds from the stress and worrying about Marsha in the days after the stroke, but he never let his emotions get in the way of his rationality, and I think you would like that about him, Holden.
Another thing about Alan that you would like is how fascinated he is with history. When he was in his twenties and in Europe during the war, he collected newspapers with interesting headlines that he thought might be even more interesting later on. So he saved them, and now, 60+ years later, he still has them, and they’re amazing. I think you would appreciate that because you like to read about historical things -- you "read a lot of classical books...and I read a lot of war books" (18). He has newspapers with incredible historic headlines in all different languages—French, German, you name it. He shows them to me almost every time we come over to their house. Most of them are about battles and leaders I’ve never really heard of, and you probably haven’t either, but some of them are really amazing—“Hitler Dead” or “Roosevelt est mort” (in French).

Alan reminds me of Phoebe a lot. He’s sincere and smart, witty and quick-thinking--which are all attributes that you appreciate. Phoebe and Alan are your and my favorite relatives, respectively. I think they have a lot in common, and I think you would like Alan about as much as I do.