It is the specifics contained in a love letter that make it unique, make it yours, and make it a love letter. San Francisco writer Sandra Foster Lovas has written an astounding one to her long-time friend who is, as we all do, changing with the years, although not like all of us, she has remained doggedly undiscouraged by some agonizing challenges.
When Sandra moved to San Francisco decades ago, she knew no one here until the day she happened to sit next to Dorrit at a rug auction and, not knowing that Dorrit was one of San Francisco’s most distinguished interior designers, dove right in to offer some very recently discovered knowledge. Sandra still smiles when she talks about offering this long-standing expert her own fresh-out-of-the box mastery of exotic carpets. That day was the first day of the rest of their lives as close friends. Dorrit, a niece of Isak Denisen, author of Out of Africa, has spent her lifetime living with an adventurousness that seems to be an inherited gift.
While it is true that Dorrit was handed a huge genetic gift; what she did with it is all her own. To hear Sandra read her letter to Dorrit is to learn a great deal about friendship, talent and paying attention to a lifetime of lessons. This letter is a not only a tribute to a lasting friendship between two influential women but a lesson in the power of the written expression of affection. This letter so filled with specific memories that it is, in effect, a wonderful biography as love letter.
