Prayer Cards

Uncle Austin was Fred’s great uncle … his father’s mother’s brother. Fred could not recollect ever meeting Uncle Austin. He lived far away. From Fred’s earliest years, at every birthday, Christmas and on myriad saints’ days, Uncle Austin mailed Fred an envelope with a prayer card and other churchy bric-a-brac. Fred kept this stuff in a shoebox, mostly unopened. Uncle Austin died the same year Fred graduated high school. Fred learned then that, for every envelope Uncle Austin sent him, Uncle Austin put five dollars in a savings account in Fred’s name. All those prayer cards … and now college.